Eswatini, 2000

Mr. President, on

behalf of the delegation of His Majesty King Mswati

III, Her Majesty the Indlovukazi and the Government

and the people of the Kingdom of Swaziland, may I

extend hearty congratulations to Mr. Harri Holkeri of

the Republic of Finland on his election as President of

this fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly. I also

wish to pay my country's rich tribute to Mr. Holkeri's

predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Minister for

Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Namibia, for his

exemplary stewardship of the last session of the

General Assembly.

The Kingdom of Swaziland continues to develop

quietly and peacefully, according to the wishes of our

people. Against a backdrop of difficult economic

circumstances, we have declared the year 2000 our

Year of Delivery in a number of key economic, social

and political areas. In the coming weeks, the

Commission that is reviewing the national Constitution

will complete its work, and we look forward to

receiving its report. Those recommendations will be

the result of an extensive and all-inclusive process of

consultations and will reflect precisely the wishes of

the entire Swazi nation. We believe this national

exercise will further enhance the unity of the Swazi

people and provide the best possible foundation for our

continuing peace and stability.

On the economic front, we continue to make

every effort to achieve sustainable growth and to

reduce the level of poverty among our people. In

addition to encouraging both local and foreign

investment, the Government this year launched an

ambitious programme of initiatives called the

Millennium Project, targeting the tourism and

manufacturing industry subsectors. This project is

designed to maximize the potential of the Kingdom in

these areas and to reduce the current unacceptably high

level of unemployment, which is threatening to

undermine all our best efforts at development.

Among the many challenges we face as a

developing nation, there is no question that the

HIV/AIDS crisis presents the most serious threat to our

hopes of improving the lives of our people. In the last

years of the twentieth century, much of the progress we

have achieved in 32 years of independence in social

welfare is being reversed by the rapid spread of this

most terrible disease. HIV/AIDS represents the single

most important issue facing our nation today, and we

desperately need the support of the international

community in our efforts to contain the threat to our

very existence as a nation. We look to the United

Nations to take a much stronger leadership role in this

global crisis, and to help us to mobilize resources to

reverse the catastrophic spread of the pandemic.

During the Millennium Summit, the Kingdom of

Swaziland joined other developing countries in

expressing concern at the negative effects of

globalization on our economies, especially in the

context of the widening gap between the rich and the

poor countries. We are, however, reassured by

Summit's agreement to take measures to ensure that

global trends such as globalization should have at their

heart the principle of equitable benefit for all nations,

regardless of size, level of development or economic

strength.

Thus, in recent years, we have waited with great

expectation to benefit from initiatives, particularly in

the area of preferential trade access, that have been

broadcast by our international friends and partners as

measures that are designed to help the developing

world to overcome the negative effects of

globalization.

My delegation is optimistic, therefore, that the

recently concluded Millennium Summit will indeed

serve as an historic occasion of strengthening

international peace and security, as well as the

prosperity of our people, in order to establish a fair

international order. Beginning with this session, what

remains for all of us now is to see to it that the wishes

of the founding fathers of the United Nations are

fulfilled. Those wishes, ambitious as they may be, are

not unreachable and can be achieved. This session,

therefore, has the task of setting the pace for the

dialogue that lies ahead. Both the Millennium Summit

and this session of the General Assembly will have a

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direct impact on the success of the United Nations in

achieving the goals set by those great visionary leaders.

Since the last session of the General Assembly,

the Organization has held several global conferences.

However, the implementation of commitments in some

cases is regrettably slow. One of the priorities for the

United Nations should be an effective, integrated and

coordinated implementation and follow-up of all these

conferences. The implementation should be further

enhanced within the existing machinery of the United

Nations through improving its functions.

Peace-building is a prevention task of growing

importance. With the disaster that befell the United

Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), the

United Nations is facing one of the most

comprehensive tasks in its history, which perhaps has

made the need to review peacekeeping operations more

imperative. We remain concerned about the serious

negative impact of the proliferation of conflicts in the

world, particularly in Africa, on development capacity

and on progress towards economic, social and political

transformation. The situation in those countries

affected by conflicts is appalling and deserves the

Organization's urgent attention.

In Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Angola, among

others, have been the scene of terrible turmoil, mass

murders, destruction of property and much suffering on

the part of refugees over the years. The Organization of

African Unity (OAU), the Economic Community of

West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern

African Development Community (SADC) have done

much to contain and resolve some of these conflicts;

and the United Nations has also rendered its support.

While some progress has been made in resolving some

of these conflicts, much still needs to be done,

especially by the parties involved. The latter have a

responsibility to observe agreements concluded and

must work closely together with the United Nations

and the regional organizations involved so that peace

processes can be brought to a successful conclusion.

With regard to the Middle East, we are

encouraged by the continued efforts by President

Clinton and other leaders to bring both Israel and

Palestine to the negotiating table. We are hopeful that a

long-lasting solution, which has eluded the region for

so long, will be found soon.

There is now more than ever a pressing need to

finally carry out the long overdue substantial reform of

the Security Council. The Council must fully recognize

the new realities of the global landscape. It must have a

more representative composition, and above all, it must

be equipped to react to the crises and conflicts of today.

Reform must involve enlargement to include both more

permanent and non-permanent members, as well as

strengthening its decision-making powers.

The Kingdom of Swaziland unreservedly supports

both the Non-Aligned Movement and the African

Group positions in as far as the review of the

composition and working methods of the Security

Council is concerned. We do trust that the ongoing

debate in the working group set up for this purpose will

continue and that it will yield the much-expected

results. The stage which the negotiations have now

reached is such that it requires the commitment of all

Member States if indeed the Security Council is to be

equipped with all the tools it needs to be equitably

representative. Participation of the United Nations

membership at large in the decision-making process,

transparency in its work and imposition of Charter

restraints on the veto, with the aim of its eventual

abolition, are indispensable imperatives.

The enhancement of the relevance of the United

Nations requires, first and foremost, strengthening the

role and increasing the efficiency of the General

Assembly through focusing its deliberations on

contemporary challenges and problems facing the

world, engaging it in timely and effective decision-

making to address global economic and political issues

and enabling it to seriously examine and effectively

react to the work of the other organs of the United

Nations, particularly the Security Council. In this

context, we believe that the General Assembly, as the

sole democratic universal and transparent organ, is the

proper forum to carry out an in-depth analysis of the

implications of the emerging debates on collective

action.

The Kingdom of Swaziland joins others in

welcoming the Republic of Tuvalu as a new member of

the Organization. The addition of Tuvalu brings closer

to fruition the hope of the founding fathers to see a

United Nations comprised of all the countries of the

world. The United Nations is the only body that deals

with all fields of human activity. It has been a catalyst

of many initiatives that have improved the lives of

peoples across the world.

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In the same spirit of universality in which we

welcome Tuvalu, the Kingdom of Swaziland wishes to

reiterate its appeal to the United Nations regarding the

question of the Republic of China on Taiwan. The

Kingdom of Swaziland has in the past been in the

forefront arguing in favour of the readmission of the

Republic of China on Taiwan, and our position remains

unchanged. The case for including the Republic of

China on Taiwan in the activities of the United Nations

and its associated agencies takes on even greater

relevance in the light of the peaceful transition of

Government following the successful expression of the

wishes of the people of Taiwan in the elections earlier

this year.

Those 23 million people rightly consider it

unacceptable that they are not represented in the one

Organization that should be truly global, and that they

deserve a review of the special circumstances

surrounding their bid. The Republic of China on

Taiwan has shown time and again its willingness to

participate in efforts to bring about true global peace,

development and stability, and we believe that the rest

of the world is poorer for being denied their

involvement. The Kingdom of Swaziland believes that

this new millennium provides the perfect opportunity

to raise this issue and to restore the right of the people

of the Republic of China on Taiwan to participate fully

in the activities of our Organization.

There is no alternative to the United Nations. Its

objectives and values are universal. We must spare no

effort in seeing to it that the United Nations continues

to meet the current and evolving needs of its entire

membership. It must become the core instrument of

effective and fair global governance, if it is to be

completely transformed to be what its founding fathers

had envisaged.