Tunisia, 1997

Allow me to begin by expressing my warmest

congratulations to the President upon his election. We are

confident that his experience, know-how and broad

understanding of international issues will be invaluable in

carrying out the noble mission that has been entrusted to

him and will provide the best possible assurance of the

success of this session. His election to the presidency

reflects the very special respect the international community

has for his friendly country, Ukraine, because of its wise

policy, based on moderation and a sense of proportion and

also because of the efforts it is making to consolidate the

principles of peace, justice and cooperation as the

foundation of relations between States.

I also wish to express our warmest thanks and

gratitude to last year's President, His Excellency Mr. Razali

Ismail, who throughout his term in office distinguished

himself by the dedication and loyalty with which he carried

out his functions, playing a remarkable role in the reform

of the United Nations and its restructuring and adaptation

to the changes occurring in the world, and in preparing it

to enter the twenty-first century with greater efficiency.

Reform of the United Nations and its restructuring are

undoubtedly in the forefront of the issues on this session's

agenda, particularly since Secretary-General Kofi Annan

has kept the promise he made when he took office and

has submitted a report on reform of the Organization that

contains numerous measures and recommendations that

are important for the Organization's future. It is with

pleasure that I pay tribute to Secretary-General Kofi

Annan for all the initiatives he has taken and the bold

proposals he has made since taking office a short while

ago with a view to reforming the Secretariat and

rationalizing its functioning.

Tunisia, which took an active part in the discussions

held in the various working groups entrusted with the

reform process, wishes to underscore the prime

importance of the issues raised in the Secretary-General's

report, both those that fall within his competence

regarding coordination between the different Departments

of the Secretariat and between the United Nations and its

specialized agencies and those reforms that concern the

United Nations activities and fall within the competence

of the General Assembly, in connection with which the

Assembly will adopt relevant resolutions.

There is no doubt that the international community

is motivated by a sincere will to give a powerful impetus

to the reform process to enable the United Nations to

accomplish the tasks provided for in the Charter, whether

with regard to achieving security and peace in the world

or to establishing conditions for sustainable development,

two closely related, complementary goals.

In our view, the most important priority of the

reform process is to focus on strengthening the United

Nations role in achieving development and in reducing

and eradicating poverty, mobilizing the means required so

that developing countries can achieve economic and social

development and meet the crucial challenges imposed

upon them by globalization and by the market economy.

Notwithstanding the well-being and prosperity that

technological progress and globalization of the economy

have brought to certain countries, while others have been

excluded, the world's economy continues to suffer from

imbalances that hinder growth in developing countries and

endanger international stability. We consider it essential

to give priority to these situations in United Nations

programmes and activities in order to narrow the chasm

that exists between States, give new impetus to

international cooperation in the field of economic and

social development and strengthen the United Nations

capacity for effective and efficient action in this regard.

Tunisia stresses the need to strengthen the role of the

United Nations in the field of development in order to

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consolidate the General Assembly's prerogatives with regard

to preparing cooperation policies and monitoring their

execution. The United Nations continues to be the ideal

forum for this within the framework of the international

community. That also requires that Member States honour

their financial commitments to the United Nations in order

to provide the necessary means required for successful

reform, the realization of the United Nations various

programmes and rational, judicious use of resources.

In this connection Tunisia once again reaffirms its

support for the restructuring of the Security Council to

ensure a fairer representation of Member States and to

guarantee the interests of developing countries within the

framework of equality for all Member States, consecrating

the spirit of the Charter and giving concrete expression to

its principles. In this regard, my country would recall the

legitimate claim of the African States, as expressed at the

Organization of African Unity (OAU) Summit Meeting held

at Tunis in June 1994 and reaffirmed at the recent OAU

Summit at Harare, calling for the allocation of two

permanent seats on the Security Council to be occupied by

African States on a rotating basis.

It is also important to continue to improve the working

methods of the Security Council and to implement fully the

procedures stipulated in the Council's rules of procedure to

ensure the effective participation of United Nations Member

States and their collective responsibility for maintaining

international peace and security.

The maintenance of international peace and security

and the elimination of the hotbeds of tensions, conflicts and

wars that still rage in many regions of the world are today,

in addition to the problems of development, at the forefront

of the international community's concerns, and they

continue to require determined and consistent action by the

United Nations.

In this context, Tunisia emphasizes the importance of

the role the United Nations must play with regard to the

situation in the Middle East in the light of the dangerous

developments that are taking place there. The United

Nations has followed the Palestinian problem since the very

beginning and has had a special responsibility to the

Palestinian people from the adoption of the resolution on

the partition of Palestine until the formulation of the basic

principles of a pacific settlement of the Arab-Israeli

conflict.

Tunisia has stood by the Palestinian people in their

struggle to recover their legitimate rights and for 12 years

was home to the Palestine Liberation Organization. It has

followed, from a position of neutrality, the Middle East

peace process and played, at the behest of its of President,

a historic role in triggering that process. It has supported

the process at every stage, beginning with the initial

contacts between the conflicting parties, at the Madrid

Conference, and in the Oslo, Washington and Cairo

agreements. Tunisia was also a party to the multilateral

negotiations. As such, Tunisia wishes here to express its

profound concern and indignation at the obstruction of

this process and at the freezing of the agreements that led

up to it, as well as at the renewed dangers of conflict,

violence and instability in the region.

We denounce the Israeli Government's policy of

fait accompli, its failure to respect the international

agreements that have been signed and the unilateral

measures it has taken in building colonies inside and

outside Al Quds, destroying houses, confiscating identity

cards, inflicting collective reprisals against the Palestinian

people, seizing their financial assets, continuing to besiege

them and taking all sorts of other arbitrary measures. We

call emphatically for a return to the basic references that

have been part of the peace process since its inception,

particularly the principle of land for peace, and for

respect of international legality on the basis of Security

Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 425

(1978) and the relevant General Assembly resolutions.

Furthermore, we call for the implementation of all the

provisions of the agreement pertaining to the transition

stage, including the second redeployment, the opening of

a secure road between the West Bank and Gaza, the

opening of the airport and the port, the release of

prisoners and the beginning of the final status

negotiations, in accordance with the agreed-upon

schedule.

The international community, particularly in the

meetings of the Security Council and the three

consecutive meetings of the tenth emergency special

session of the General Assembly, has already condemned

the current Israeli Government's policy of building

settlements in Al Quds and in the occupied Palestinian

territories. This policy has greatly discouraged the

Palestinian community and international opinion in

general, particularly since it has given rise to acts of

violence for which Israel bears sole responsibility, given

the profound despair that has replaced the relief that had

been felt throughout the entire region.

Tunisia exhorts the international community, and

especially the two sponsors of peace, to act expeditiously

and firmly to save the peace and avert the dangers that

20

threaten the region so that the Palestinian people is able to

recover its legitimate rights to the creation of an

independent State on its own soil with Al-Quds Al-Sharif

as its capital, and to ensure the restoration to Syria and

Lebanon of the territories which Israel has occupied.

We note with satisfaction the United States'

resumption of efforts to save the peace process, notably the

meeting held yesterday in New York between the parties

concerned. We also welcome the efforts being made to

restore confidence among the parties concerned with a view

to helping them overcome the current crisis and achieve an

equitable settlement of the Palestinian problem and the

Arab-Israeli conflict as a whole. We feel that actions

undertaken to date to mitigate the risks of tension and

conflict in the region remain far below what we had hoped.

Tunisia regrets the deterioration of the current

financial situation of the United Nations Relief and Works

Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA),

which hinders its mission to alleviate the suffering of the

Palestinian people. While reaffirming the international

community's responsibility for the question of Palestinian

refugees, we urge it to continue to provide assistance to

UNRWA in order to allow it to carry out its mandate fully

and resume its work. We urge all donors countries to

maintain and honour their financial commitment and to

increase their contribution to the Agency budget, taking into

account the natural growth in the number of Palestinian

refugees, in order to allow the Agency to overcome its

severe financial crisis.

Tunisia's awareness of the importance in today's world

of economic and geographic groupings to meeting the

challenges of globalization and the changes we are currently

witnessing encourages us to be firm and consistent in

pursuing our efforts to complete the construction of the

Arab Maghreb Union. The Union represents a particular

claim made by the peoples of our region and one of the

goals that we, together with the leaders of our brother

Maghreb countries, are striving to attain.

This strategic option for the future of the peoples of

the region and their cooperation with their immediate

environment is strengthened by the efforts our country is

making, under the impetus of President Ben Ali, to

construct a Euro-Mediterranean area that will serve as a

framework for cooperation among the Mediterranean

riparian countries, for solidarity among their peoples and

for cultural and social dialogue in the context of the noble

values and principles in which we all believe. Our country

has already assumed a distinctive role in ensuring the

success of the various meetings and conferences held to

this end, from the preparatory meeting of the region's

Ministers for Foreign Affairs held in Tabarka, Tunisia, to

the Barcelona conference and the meetings that followed.

Our country gave concrete expression to this option in

1995 by signing an association agreement with the

European Union.

We believe that it has become imperative to respond

favourably to the willingness of the Libyan Arab

Jamahiriya to settle the Lockerbie question in a fair and

honourable manner in the framework of proposals made

by the League of Arab States, the Organization of African

Unity (OAU) and the Non-Aligned Movement. These

proposals can help to achieve a peaceful solution based

on international legality and thereby hasten the end of the

suffering being endured by the brother Libyan people

under the embargo. They would also strengthen stability

in that part of the Mediterranean.

We also take this opportunity to call for an end to

the suffering that has been inflicted upon the Iraqi people

for a number of years now. We hope that relations among

the States of the Gulf region will be based on respect for

the sovereignty of all the States of the region, their

territorial integrity and the inviolability of their borders,

in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the Security

Council. In this context, Tunisia once again reaffirms its

solidarity with the United Arab Emirates in the peaceful

efforts they are making to recover the islands of Greater

Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa.

The success of the United Nations in achieving

international peace and security does not rest only on

peacekeeping operations, preventive diplomacy and the

peaceful settlement of conflict. It also requires progress

and accomplishments in the field of disarmament. Despite

the end of the cold war and the achievement of a number

of positive results, particularly in limiting the proliferation

of weapons of mass destruction, these weapons —

particularly nuclear weapons — continue seriously to

threaten all mankind.

Tunisia, which has ratified all the international

conventions on the subject, reiterates its appeals for the

establishment of a denuclearized zone, free of all weapons

of mass destruction, in the Middle East. This appeal has

been supported by the accession to the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of all the countries

of the region with the exception of Israel, which has

neither ratified the Treaty nor placed its nuclear facilities

21

under the system of international controls, thereby

endangering the security and integrity of the entire region.

There are many regions of the world that continue to

be torn by war and conflict and whose populations are

confronted with tragic situations as a result of instability,

insecurity, famine and destitution. We nonetheless note with

satisfaction that, despite the persistence of hotbeds of

tension and instability in some of these regions, the African

continent is beginning truly to awaken to the possibility of

restored security and renewed economic growth in a

number of its regions and countries.

Tunisia welcomes the development of the situation in

Africa and the sincere determination of member countries

of the Organization of African Unity to pursue the reforms

that have been undertaken to restructure economies and

consolidate democracy. At the same time, my country

reiterates the appeal made by President Ben Ali many times

to the international community for increased attention to be

paid to the continent's problems in order to eradicate once

and for all the hotbeds of tension that remain in Africa, so

that security and stability may be instituted throughout the

continent, enabling all its peoples to devote themselves to

work and to economic development.

In this context, the role to be played by the United

Nations in assisting the countries concerned to overcome

these difficulties and challenges assumes primary

importance. It is a role that should be seen in the context of

the prime responsibility that our international Organization

assumes in preserving peace and security and in confirming

the fact that the United Nations is irreplaceable in these

endeavours. However, this in no way minimizes the

importance that should be given to the action of regional

organizations, whose role has grown in recent years,

making their influence visible and palpable.

Our country emphasizes the importance of the role

devoted to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention,

Management and Resolution, which was set up by the

Organization of African Unity for all issues related to

security and stability on the African continent. This clearly

does not prevent us from supporting any international

initiative that is consistent with this essential principle and

that reinforces African efforts to preserve peace and

security on our continent.

We applaud the efforts of the United Nations

Secretariat to stimulate cooperation and to promote

consultation with the Organization of African Unity to

strengthen its capacity for preventing conflicts and

maintaining peace. Numerous African States, including

Tunisia, have declared their willingness to participate in

the standby arrangements for peacekeeping, thereby

demonstrating their determination to contribute to United

Nations efforts to improve the methods of organizing

United Nations peacekeeping operations. There is no

doubt that the promotion of international cooperation,

particularly in the field of training and logistics, can

ensure the success of the standby forces, thereby making

it the basic formula for the establishment of United

Nations peacekeeping forces. In this regard, we reaffirm

Tunisia's unswerving desire to make a real contribution to

the efforts of the United Nations to preserve international

peace and security.

Our country has contributed both military and

civilian contingents to many United Nations peacekeeping

operations — from the Congo in the early 1960s to other

similar operations in a number of African countries; in

Cambodia; in Bosnia and Herzegovina; in Croatia; and

recently in Haiti — thus giving concrete evidence of its

faith in international action and cooperation carried out by

the Organization. Tunisia will continue to support and

assist United Nations peacekeeping operations whenever

necessary.

In order to meet the challenges generated by

globalization and openness in the world economy, Tunisia

has introduced substantial and coherent reforms in the

political, economic and social fields to ensure society's

equilibrium and integrity and the solidarity of its

members, thereby eliminating the negative factors that

could hinder this: exclusion, neglect of the human aspect

in development, and the creation of chasms between

social categories resulting from disparate levels of

development within a given society.

We are convinced that global development can be

achieved only when the vulnerable sectors of society have

been assured the conditions for integration with economic

dynamics. This requires uprooting the causes of poverty,

destitution and marginalization, which is consistent with

the commitment to promote solidarity and mutual

assistance between the members of society on the national

level, and efforts being made in that direction on the

international level.

The fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations

afforded the leaders of Member countries an opportunity

to confirm their determination to revitalize the role of the

United Nations and to confer upon its actions greater

dynamism at a time when problems of security,

22

development and environment multiply, requiring joint

efforts and shared determination to face them with a view

to achieving progress, prosperity and well-being for all.

The success of the United Nations remains contingent

upon action in accordance with the goals and principles

enshrined in its Charter. It is also conditioned by the

commitment of all countries, large and small, to implement

decisions which uphold the values of liberty, dignity and

justice. In so doing we will respond to the aspirations of

our peoples who are the essential guarantors of the United

Nations vitality and of its capacity for renewal, durability

and ability to meet the challenges which humanity will

confront during the next century.