Russia, 1993

First of all, I should like to congratulate you,

Mr. President, on your election to your important post. I see

it as a manifestation of respect for the peace-loving policy

of Guyana, and as a tribute to the growing role of Latin

American and Caribbean countries in international affairs.

Last year demonstrated the great potential for drama

inherent in the post-confrontational and post-communist

world. We have seen that the very highest levels of

cooperation are achievable. We see truly exciting prospects

in yesterday’s address by President Bill Clinton of the

United States and in other statements already delivered from

this rostrum.

At the same time, developments in the former

Yugoslavia, Abkhazia and Karabakh have also revealed the

true depths of barbarism and the significant new threat of

aggressive nationalism.

Outbursts of violence caused by xenophobia, even in

traditionally prosperous countries, have shown that no one is

safe from this danger. It is no less serious a threat to peace

today than nuclear war was yesterday. The world

community mustered the strength to stave off the nuclear

danger. An important guarantee against this was the

Russian-American START II Treaty. Nowadays we all

confront the equally formidable challenge of a new

generation of conflicts and wars triggered by nationalist,

political and religious intolerance. That is why democracy

and peacemaking must be the key terms defining the strategy

of the world community as it moves into the twenty-first

century.

The United Nations is now turning to face this new

challenge. The successful United Nations operation in

Cambodia was one of the largest in the history of the

Organization. Life is returning to normal in a country so

long torn by civil war. We stand ready, together with other

members of the international community, to help the people

of Cambodia to rebuild their country.

Forty-eighth session - 28 September l993 15

We have seen a political and psychological

breakthrough in the solution of the key problem of the

Middle East settlement, which is the problem of Palestine.

We pay tribute to the courageous leaders of Israel and the

PLO who have taken the first and most difficult step towards

mutual recognition and reconciliation. We are ready to

participate in an international conference on the economic

development of self-governing Palestinian territories.

Russia, as a co-sponsor of the Conference on the Middle

East, will spare no effort to advance the peace process in all

other areas.

However, the key to the settlement of many conflicts

has not yet been found. Russia will continue to encourage

the parties to the Bosnian conflict not to lose the chance of

a peaceful settlement and will contribute to the operation for

its implementation under United Nations command.

Twice during wartime I have had occasion to visit

Sarajevo. I propose that the United Nations should place the

city under its moral and political protection and that it

should be declared a centre of coexistence and a meeting

point for Islam, the Orthodox Church, Catholicism and other

religions. The city should become a symbol for the whole

world, a reminder that political violence and intolerance

under the banner of religion are the worst possible crimes

against religion itself and the human spirit. In any case, it

is surely time to think of establishing closer contacts

between the United Nations and the world’s leading

religions.

The international community seems to have turned a

blind eye to Afghanistan and Angola as soon as they ceased

to be pawns in the cold war. The United Nations has no

right to leave millions of people who live there in the grip

of an epidemic of ethnic, clan and religious extremism and

to forget their economic and humanitarian problems,

including that of the liberation of former Soviet prisoners of

war.

We must learn the lessons of the United Nations

operation in Somalia and considerably improve its

effectiveness. Conscious of its special responsibility for

maintaining peace, Russia has made peacemaking and the

protection of human rights, particularly those of national

minorities, the priority of its foreign policy, first and

foremost in the territory of the former USSR.

We will spare no effort to strengthen the

Commonwealth of Independent States and make it a positive

factor, not only regionally, but globally. I call upon

Members of the United Nations to support proposals

submitted jointly by the members of the Commonwealth of

Independent States to the present session, relating in

particular to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction, the struggle against international terrorism and

the protection of the environment.

Our peacemaking efforts are already yielding their first

results. For more than a year now there have been no

hostilities in the Transdniester region and South Ossetia.

With our participation, the process of normalization of the

situation and national dialogue has started in Tajikistan.

Russia is making active efforts to put an end to the

Abkhazian and Karabakh conflicts and to render

humanitarian assistance to their victims.

All these problems are too serious and too tragic for

speculation about neo-imperial plans of Russia, diplomatic

rivalry, or the search for new spheres of influence by

neighbouring and distant Powers. The United Nations, the

Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE),

and all States truly interested in peace, along with Russia,

will have enough work to do together. We want to see

much more active assistance for our peacemaking efforts,

not in words, but in deeds.

In most cases this means that the United Nations should

give a mandate for operations conducted at the request of

conflicting parties on the basis of appropriate agreements.

For this, close interaction with the United Nations and the

CSCE missions is essential. Also, our minds should be open

to non-traditional methods, such as the participation of

contingents of the conflicting parties themselves and those

of a neighbouring mediating State. The pragmatic nature of

such a model was shown in particular in the Transdniester

region and in South Ossetia. This model should be used,

and not disregarded, in other regions, in the interests of the

United Nations, which is facing an overload of peace-

keeping operations. The collective peacemaking forces of

the Commonwealth of Independent States could also interact

with the United Nations itself. It is in any case time to

establish closer relations between the two organizations.

In material and financial terms the burden of

peacemaking borne by Russia alone today in the territory of

the former USSR must be lightened. This could mean

establishing a voluntary fund for this purpose. Of course,

Russia realizes that no international organization or group of

States can replace our peacemaking efforts in this specific

post-Soviet area.

16 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

By and large, taking into consideration the wide

experience gained throughout the world, it is time to think

of a modern overall strategy of peacemaking which would

be integrated with "An Agenda for Peace" proposed by the

Secretary-General.

The Russian Federation, as an initiator of the statement

of the President of the Security Council on peacemaking and

peace-keeping issues, made on 28 May 1993, makes the

following proposals.

The first is to define a clear-cut concept of political

leadership by the Security Council, create an effective

military command under the supervision of the Secretary-

General and establish a procedure for involving, on that

basis, regional organizations.

The second is to establish under Article 29 of the

United Nations Charter a special Security Council committee

on improving peace-keeping operation practices. This could

include those States which have already gained considerable

experience in this area of United Nations activity.

Our third proposal is to set up United Nations stand-by

forces which would be at the disposal of Member States and

used in peacemaking operations with the consent of their

Governments on a case-by-case basis at the request of the

Secretary-General.

All these questions directly relate to the process of

renewal of the United Nations. The reform of United

Nations bodies, including the Security Council, will make

sense and be effective if it allows for a more adequate

response to new challenges in the field of peacemaking.

The settlement of conflicts should go hand in hand with

the international protection of their victims. As a follow-up

to the Geneva International Conference on the Protection of

Victims of War, we propose that international legal

restrictions be imposed on the use in internal conflicts of the

most destructive and indiscriminate types of weapons,

primarily military aircraft and artillery-rocket systems. We

should also eliminate or call a halt to the use of mercenaries

and volunteers both in domestic and international conflicts.

We propose the establishment of a permanent

international tribunal to deal with crimes against humanity.

The inevitability of punishment will help to prevent the

recurrence of such atrocities.

It has become crucially important to address

comprehensively the problem of refugees and to specify the

relevant principles of international law at a special

conference.

Peacemaking cannot be separated from the protection

of human rights. The international community is duty-bound

to condemn strongly "double" or lower standards of human

rights protection, the theory and practice of the superiority

of rights of an "indigenous" nation and the creation of mono-

ethnic States. The time has come to establish a United

Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Following

the example of the Conference on Security and Cooperation

in Europe, it is time for the United Nations also to have a

Special Rapporteur on National Minorities. We support the

proposals of the Secretary-General in the field of human

rights protection.

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction would

directly contradict the peacemaking efforts of the United

Nations. This poses an ever growing threat not only in the

future but even at the present. We are ready to cooperate

with the United States and other countries in solving the

problems connected with cutting off fissionable material

production and banning the construction of facilities for such

production, particularly in conflict areas.

We are in favour of transforming the Nuclear

Non-Proliferation Treaty into a universal agreement of

unlimited duration. The United Nations should also work to

ensure the universality of and strict compliance with the

Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Russia reiterates, from this rostrum of the General

Assembly, its intention to adhere to the international regime

of non-proliferation of missile technology. In the very near

future, we intend to take concrete steps to strengthen our

relevant domestic legislation, going so far as to envisage

criminal prosecution for violations of the rules governing the

export of missile equipment and technology. We call on all

States that possess such technology to join the Missile

Technology Control Regime (MTCR). It is also necessary

to provide for equality of rights and obligations of the

participants, so as to enable them freely to export peaceful

space technology.

Successful economic reform is one of the guarantees of

peace. This is of particular relevance to the many developing

countries and to the post-communist States. Easier access to

world markets for countries with transitional economies,

including Russia, and the lifting of all discriminatory

restrictions is becoming an issue of the highest priority. We

Forty-eighth session - 28 September l993 17

believe that the General Assembly should express its support

for efforts in this direction. We also propose the

establishment of a mechanism to coordinate programmes

carried out by the institutions of the United Nations system

in support of economic reforms in countries in transition.

The strengthening of democracy is the principal

guarantee of security and socio-economic development in the

world today. This has been true in Europe, Asia, Africa and

Latin America, although the process is not proceeding easily

and automatically everywhere. Peoples who have risen up

against totalitarianism are threatened by the risk of political

violence and ultra-nationalism.

We categorically reject such an alternative. Russia is

peacefully transforming itself in accordance with the

fundamental principle of democracy: free elections. In 1991,

the people of Russia elected their country’s first democratic

President, and they confirmed their confidence in his policies

at the April referendum this year. On the basis of this

twofold mandate, the President has taken decisive measures

to ensure democratic elections to the Parliament in

December of this year. Thus, the old totalitarian system of

power will be definitively dismantled and replaced by a new

system of power elected by the people and responsible only

to the people. We invite international observers to monitor

the elections to the Parliament.

In building a new democratic Russia, we of course must

first of all rely on our own potential. Yet we very much

appreciate the solidarity the democratic community has

shown us. Such solidarity is neither an act of interference

in our domestic affairs nor the whimsical gesture of

romanticists in international politics. It is simply an

expression of the human duty to protect the rights of

individuals in other countries.

Next month will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the

Moscow Conference when, in the turbulent year of 1943, the

foundation was laid for the establishment of the United

Nations, which was conceived as an organization of

democratic countries having triumphed over Nazi

totalitarianism. Half a century later, the success of

democracy in Russia and many other countries has made it

possible for the first time to realize fully the lofty destiny of

the United Nations and to help it become a truly efficient

peacemaking Organization.

We should not allow political short-sightedness, current

economic difficulties, egoism and conceit to make us lose

the chance to transform the still fragile post-communist

world into a democratic one. I hope that this session will

move us closer to an understanding of this goal and of the

ways of reaching it in the interests of all States and nations.