São Tomé and Príncipe, 1992

On behalf of the Sao Tome and Principe

delegation, I should like to congratulate the President on his unanimous

election to the presidency of the forty-seventh session of the United Nations

General Assembly. His election is unquestionably a tribute to his country and

a recognition of his qualities as a diplomat.

May I take this opportunity to express our appreciation of the efficient

manner in which his predecessor, Ambassador Samir Shihabi, presided over the

work of the forty-sixth session.

We should like to again express our confidence in and admiration for the

leadership shown by the Secretary-General Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in

dealing with the challenges facing the Organization in this crucial phase of

its history.

We extend our greetings to the new Members of the Organization. Their

admission is a confirmation of the universalist calling of the United Nations

at time when its actions are making themselves felt everywhere in the world.

The end of the cold war has made it possible to foresee a new era in

international relations, characterized by respect for international law and

for the principles inscribed in Charter of the United Nations, and by a search

for solutions to the great and complex problems that are on the agenda of the

human community.

Our hopes for a better world, held hostage for so long by the reductive

Manichaeism of the East-West conflict, have taken form and are reflected in a

common desire to create a new world order based on respect for the legitimate

rights of peoples, on lasting peace, on a more balanced distribution of world

resources, and on active solidarity between the rich and poor peoples of our

planet, with the United Nations as a focal point and point of reference.

While it is absolutely clear today that important steps are being taken

towards making some of these aspirations a reality, it is no less certain that

the definition of priorities, the selection of means, the allocation of the

necessary resources and, in some cases, the very solutions chosen all reflect

conditionalities born of the old order and bespeak a selective approach that

does not always match the noble purposes and principles that inspire the

United Nations Charter. While it is not realistic to expect an immediate

solution to such complex and difficult problems as those that result from the

profound imbalance we find between North and South, the absence of any

concrete and serious movement in this direction continues to be a concern.

That millions of men, women and children are living in circumstances that

are a denial of their human condition is not admissible in this century, which

has been witness to so many of man's conquests.

That entire peoples should also find their fundamental rights denied by

the forces of occupying regimes, in flagrant violation of Security Council

decisions, is clearly anachronistic, especially when the United Nations has,

in some cases, already mobilized the collective will of its Members and the

mechanisms provided for in its Charter to impose respect for international

law. That liberation from the oppressor's yoke, which keeps entire nations

subjugated, is giving rise to acts of truly suicidal barbarism in various

parts of the world is a challenge to which we must respond with the greatest

urgency and determination. That the future of the coming generations on this

planet is being menaced by the irresponsible and blind exploitation of limited

resources in the name of short-term interests reveals an individualism that

cannot leave us indifferent.

For this reason, we would like to associate the Democratic Republic of

Sao Tome and Principe with those who, from this very rostrum, have condemned

the violence that threatens the initiatives aimed at seeking a peaceful and

negotiated solution in South Africa, within the context of the Convention for

a Democratic South Africa, the path chosen for a peaceful transition to power

for the black majority.

For this reason too we salute the Angolan people for the maturity it has

demonstrated throughout the recent electoral process, which will permit the

Republic of Angola to dedicate itself, in an atmosphere of peace and national

reconciliation, to the tremendous task of rebuilding the country.

We cannot but regret that last-minute problems have prevented the

scheduled signature of the cease-fire agreements between the Government of

Mozambique and RENAMO. We would like to express our solidarity with the

Peoples of Mozambique and our encouragement to the parties involved to

persevere on the path of a peaceful solution with all the seriousness and

commitment that the situation demands.

We are following the Middle East negotiations with great anticipation,

hoping that they will lead to the realization of the legitimate rights of the

Palestinian people and a solution to the territorial conflicts that separate

the peoples of the region, in compliance with the pertinent resolutions of the

Security Council. We hope, likewise, that the self-determination referendum

in Western Sahara will permit the people of that territory to decide their own

destiny.

It is for this reason, too, that we lament the fact that the people of

East Timor have had their voice silenced and that the massacres of which they

are the victims are not sufficient evidence that their legitimate right to

self-determination has been repressed by the force of an occupation that is on

all counts contrary to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

We would like to believe that the recent meeting between the Foreign Ministers

of Portugal, the administering Power, and Indonesia, under the auspices of the

Secretary General, will lead to a serious process of negotiation aimed at

finding a peaceful solution to the question that will end the suffering of the

people of East Timor. In our view, it is essential that at the appropriate

time representatives of the people of East Timor be involved in the

negotiating process.

At the same time, we cannot fail to repudiate and vigorously condemn

those responsible for the gratuitous suffering and human misery imposed on the

peoples of Somalia, Liberia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We believe that any

reluctance to implement the decisions of the Rio de Janeiro Summit will, over

time, compromise our common destiny.

Today more than ever before, the United Nations as an organization has a

role of fundamental importance to play in defining the new world order that is

being built, assuming responsibility, in the spirit of the Charter and with

the participation of all its Members, for translating our collective

aspirations into joint undertakings that will mobilize our energies and

resources and optimize the potential contributions of each individual Member

State. Thus, our admiration and encouragement go out to our

Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for the efforts he is making to

restructure the Secretariat and for the initiatives he is pressing in various

areas of the Organization's activities.

We believe it is essential that the decision-making process within our

Organization be in keeping with the democratic principles so dear to us, and

that the organs and mechanisms for the promotion of economic and social

development be upgraded in order to permit a more effective response to the

major challenges that humanity faces as this century nears its end.

The dynamism, breadth and consensus that inspire the activities of the

Organization in the areas of conflict prevention and peace-keeping must lead

us to pay special attention to the effort to restructure the economic and

social sector in order to maximize the effectiveness of the intervention of

the various agencies of the system an effort already under way, as we have

been informed in the Secretary-General's report.

The establishment of a new, more just and more lasting world order would

appear to presuppose and assume at the national level a two-fold, fundamental

challenge of our times: democratization and development.

Over and above selecting the model most suited to the historical and

socio-cultural realities of each country, it is quite clear today that the

establishment of institutions that favour the participation of the people in

the management of public affairs and respect for basic human rights, including

the free and regular choice of leaders, is today a condition for any lasting

development. It is also evident that, in view of the high level of dependence

of the so-called third-world countries on the outside world, no development

will be possible unless we see a change in the unequal terms of exchange that

condemn the gigantic effort of many peoples to the caprices of a free market

in which decisions are taken totally without their consent.

Powerless victims of the imponderables of the world economy, in which

they play but a marginal role, the nations of the third world will never be in

a position to meet the development challenge unless fairer and more

appropriate mechanisms are introduced in international economic relations to

alter the terms of the involvement of those nations in the process of world

exchanges. For a growing group of these countries the least developed

countries international solidarity must be mobilized through cooperation

more attuned to their requirements and better suited to the specific needs of

each one.

We in Sao Tome and Principe are prepared and determined to meet this

twofold challenge. Faced with the need to move beyond the state of lethargy

in which our-country found itself, political forces in Sao Tome turned to the

path of transformation that led to the establishment of a democratic State

through a process in which the dominant notes are dialogue, tolerance, the

achievement of consensus and respect for diversity of viewpoints.

The political aspect of this endeavour found fertile ground, for the

reasons I mentioned earlier and because it corresponded to the aspiration of

the people to a future in which their fundamental rights and guarantees will

be duly safeguarded. I must note, however, that major constraints of an

economic and financial nature, the precipitous drop in the standard of living,

and an inability to see light at the end of the tunnel of our deep concerns

will surely pose a threat to the new democratic regime, with the whole array

of consequences this could have.

The dilemma posed by a crisis that is unbearable on all counts and by the

implementation of democratic principles demonstrates clearly that the

insistent calls for the democratization of developing countries will never go

beyond a mere Utopian dream unless they are backed by a new international

vision open to a realistic solution of the debt problem, to a favourable

change in the terms of trade and to a gradual transfer of technology to the

raw-material-producing countries, thus giving them the ability to transform

themselves to their own profit.

There are few moments in the common history of mankind when, as in our

own time, the political, economic, defence and security architecture of the

planet undergoes profound and significant changes. The diversity, the

complexity and, not unexpectedly, the unpredictability of these changes

represent an opportunity that must not be lost to make decisions towards

correcting the asymmetries and injustices forged by an order which is

gradually disintegrating before our eyes. For we are all aware of the

non-viability of a world whose contrasts shock and whose profound inequalities

constitute unequivocal factors of instability and revolt.

We therefore believe that only an international effort of intelligent

convergence will permit responses that can satisfy the legitimate interests of

peoples all over the world: a task in which the United Nations should play a

key role, a role it is already demonstrating it can assume through

intervention that is increasingly prestigious because it is incisive and

pragmatic, covering the most varied regions of the world.

Despite the re-emergence of political, religious and ethnic intolerance

that all too often degenerates into more extended areas of instability, and

despite the persistence of major symptoms of inequality in cooperation among

nations and the consequent inequality in the living conditions of the

peoples concerned it is fair to state that we have taken a giant step

forward. The more skeptical among us will say that one step is not much on

the long road ahead of us, but we retain the hope that, together, freed of

exacerbated and futile self-centredness, we will be capable of progressing

along the arduous path to which we are irrevocably committed.

The immediate tomorrows may not hear a lot of song, but the future

belongs to the world.