El Salvador, 1998

Allow me to begin by expressing our sorrow at the loss of

human life and the material damage caused by the

inclemencies of nature in our sister nations of the

Caribbean. We feel the greatest solidarity with them and

urge the international community quickly and generously to

provide them with emergency assistance to deal with this

crisis.

We would like to extend to you, Sir, our sincere

congratulations on your election to preside over this session

of the General Assembly. We are particularly delighted by

your election, as we enjoy excellent relations of friendship

and cooperation with your country.

We would also like to extend our thanks to your

predecessor, Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko, for his work in

promoting the objectives of the United Nations,

particularly in the area of encouraging reform of this

Organization.

We extend our thanks to the Secretary-General for

his excellent work in discharge of his mandate in an

extremely complex international situation in which a great

variety of interests are represented.

This will be my last participation here as President

of the Republic of El Salvador, and I should therefore

like to reiterate our appreciation to this Organization for

having been a decisive factor in the signing and

verification of the Peace Accords that ended the armed

conflict in El Salvador.

From the beginning of our Administration, we

declared our political will and our Government?s

commitment to comply fully with the Peace Accords, and

we are pleased to say we have done so, despite the

difficulties and obstacles encountered along the way.

We can say that profound transformations have taken

place in El Salvador, resulting in the replacement of

authoritarianism, abuse of power and impunity by a

system founded on strict respect for the law and the

principles and values of democracy.

The restoration of peace and the consolidation of

democracy have enabled the state of law in El Salvador to

be strengthened, guaranteeing full independence for the

basic organs of the Government of our Republic, as well as

respect for the rights of the individual. We have also been

able to proceed with a strategy of economic and social

development with emphasis on the eradication of the

underlying causes of poverty.

El Salvador now has a solid economy that is growing

progressively and is internationally recognized and trusted.

We are carrying out a successful plan for modernizing the

country, seeking greater efficiency, productivity and

competitiveness; one important component of this approach

is the elimination of State monopolies through the

privatization of such sectors as energy, telecommunications

and social security.

We are implementing an economic policy of

promoting our exports and attracting foreign investment,

with a view to stimulating production, creating more jobs

and making better use of the opening of international

markets.

We have focused on programmes for promoting

human resources and the progress of communities,

especially in the neediest and most vulnerable sectors of

society. To this end, we have allocated increasing

percentages of our national budget to education, health and

housing. As part of our strategy for fighting against

poverty, the National Department for the Family is carrying

out support programmes for women, children and the

elderly.

Because we attach great importance to the ecology, we

have established a Ministry of the Environment and Natural

Resources and we have now adopted a special law on this

issue, in the aim of seeking solutions to the serious

environmental problems facing our country and the world.

We are pleased to report that currently we are carrying

out consultations across the country on the conclusion of a

draft basic agreement for a national plan, involving the

general agreement of all the various representative sectors

of El Salvador?s society. Our greatest hope is that the

national plan will encourage participation by all Salvadoran

men and women in a common long-term undertaking in

which the interests of all are intertwined, without

distinctions or political or ideological conditions, and which

will be established as the nation?s second great political

agreement, after the Peace Accords.

El Salvador fully supports Central American

integration, and along with the other Governments and

private sectors in the region we are updating our legal

instruments and strengthening the institutions that make

up this system of regional integration.

From a multilateral perspective, we can say that we

have participated in and supported the declarations and

plans of action adopted at international summits and

conferences, responsibly shouldering our commitments in

the areas of environment, human rights, social issues,

development of women, rights of the child, population

and the fight against drug abuse, inter alia.

The profound changes that have taken place in

recent years have had a strong impact on the international

system, including the United Nations, resulting in

agreement on the need for restructuring so as to respond

properly to and solve global problems, particularly those

of the developing countries.

We believe that Member States must join forces, act

in solidarity with each other, shoulder their

responsibilities and reach agreements to promote the

changes that are needed in the United Nations so that it

can fully discharge its mandate.

We support implementation of the Secretary-

General?s proposals to complete the restructuring of the

Secretariat, and we advocate a change in attitude so that

there can be real reform in the Security Council and the

Economic and Social Council and its subsidiary bodies.

We need a Security Council that is more transparent,

democratic and representative, so that it can enjoy the

support of all Members of the Organization, and

accordingly can become more effective in adopting

practical and efficient measures to prevent and resolve

conflicts.

We are pleased that progress has been made in the

political situation worldwide, but we must express our

concern over the fragile state of peace and stability in

some parts of the world as a result of continuing conflict,

failure to implement agreements, deadlocks and possible

breakdowns in peace processes, acts of terrorism, hostility

and lack of trust among States.

We are concerned about the deadlock in the peace

process in the Middle East, and we urge the parties to

seek a swift solution in accordance with the agreements

made.

2

The Preamble to the Charter states that the peoples of

the United Nations are resolved to save succeeding

generations from the scourge of war and to unite their

strength for the maintenance of international peace and

security. Unfortunately, not all Member States are

convinced of this or ready to put into practice these ideas

so as to achieve the objectives that are of concern to us all.

The recent nuclear tests run counter to our efforts to

achieve a world free from nuclear weapons. We have

supported every initiative to ensure a safer world for our

peoples, and, in a spirit of international solidarity, I am

pleased to report that earlier this month El Salvador

deposited its instrument of ratification on the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

We believe that terrorism in any of its manifestations

is an affront to the civilized principles of the human race

and constitutes criminal conduct, which we strongly

condemn and which cannot be justified on political,

ideological, philosophical, ethnic or religious grounds. We

accordingly condemn the terrorist attacks in Kenya,

Tanzania, South Africa and Northern Ireland, which took

innocent lives, wounded thousands and destroyed property.

That is why we support Security Council resolution

1189 (1998), which calls on all States and international

institutions to cooperate with and provide support and

assistance to investigations with a view to bringing to

justice those who planned and carried out those

reprehensible acts.

The Government of El Salvador recognizes and

supports the efforts of the international community strongly

to fight against drug abuse. We reaffirm our commitment

made in the Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug

Demand Reduction and in the measures to enhance

international cooperation, which we adopted during the

special session of the General Assembly devoted to the

drugs problem last June.

The fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights and the fifth anniversary of the Vienna

Declaration and Programme of Action will be important

milestones providing an opportunity for us to think about

the progress made and the effective enjoyment of

fundamental freedoms. They also provide an opportunity for

every State to renew its commitment to comply with the

obligations it has entered into, as part of the international

legal machinery that protects and promotes these rights.

El Salvador reaffirms its support for the restoration

of the rights of the Republic of China on Taiwan as a

State Member of this Organization because we believe it

is a matter of justice to respect the sovereign will and

aspirations of its people in accordance with the principle

of universality enshrined in the Charter of the United

Nations.

The changes that have occurred in the international

arena since the end of the cold war have not narrowed the

gap between the developed and developing countries —

rather, the gap has become wider. The globalization,

liberalization and interdependence that characterize the

new international order are challenges and opportunities

of which many of our countries cannot take proper

advantage because of the constraints we face. Integrating

into the competitive world requires resources, technology

and financing that go well beyond the national capacities

of the least developed countries. This situation can be

overcome only with the participation of the countries that

are better developed.

In his report on the work of the Organization, the

Secretary-General said again that the volume of external

assistance to the developing countries has declined

steadily during the current decade, and much of what is

given is not appropriate for or aimed at the needs of the

recipient countries. El Salvador urges donor countries to

try to increase their cooperation for development, and

particularly urges the industrialized countries to facilitate

access to their markets for products from less developed

countries.

The great advances made in recent times in all areas

of human knowledge highlight the need to make more of

an effort to resolve the basic problems facing the majority

of the world?s population. If we truly wish to have a

world free from poverty, war, drugs, crime, terrorism and

environmental degradation, we must join forces so that

together we can find new mechanisms and new paths of

action that lead us to a swift solution to the problems and

concerns of our peoples.

We appeal for the wisdom and help of the gods of

the nations to ensure that in all corners of the earth peace,

harmony, solidarity and progress will reign.