Tanzania, 1992

We have come here to renew

our faith and confidence in the world Organization. In a way, especially to

us in Africa, the United Nations has assumed a unique position. This is the

first time since the founding of the United Nations in 1945 that the

Organization has a Secretary-General from Africa. The Tanzanian delegation

congratulates Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali on his well-deserved election. The

United Nations has assumed great significance because this change in the

leadership of the United Nations has come at a time when the changes in the

international system during the last few years have imposed upon all countries

the need to reassess familiar attitudes and policies.

I congratulate the President upon his taking office during this period of

change. His wealth of experience, skill and commitment are not only a

valuable asset to the forty-seventh session, but also speak volubly of the

capabilities of his own country, Bulgaria, with which Tanzania enjoys

excellent relations. I am confident that he will ably adorn the position,

bringing to it prestige and impartiality. His predecessor.

Ambassador Samir Shihabi of Saudi Arabia, presided over the forty-sixth

session with great skill. My delegation joins in the expressions of

appreciation addressed to him.

In any human history, there are certain historical conjunctures which

distinguish one period from another. The five-year period between 1987 and

1992 will be regarded as an important period in world history. This phase

coincided with the ending of the cold war and witnessed the expansion of the

boundaries of the international system through the birth of 21 additional

States in the period 1991-1992 alone. I am delighted to join the warm welcome

extended to the newest Members of our Organization.

The nature of governments has been transformed by increased

democratization of their domestic political orders; the structures of power

and influence in the world have been altered by the disintegration of the

Soviet Union. These developments call for a transformation of the pattern of

diplomatic interactions, especially in the United Nations, and the

refashioning of the basic structure underlying the international system so

that the emerging new order may be based on right rather than might, on

justice rather than expediency.

In retrospect, the political landscape of the international system has

been profoundly and positively altered in the last five years. Yet it has

also opened up new instabilities, more challenges to international peace and

security, greater uncertainties - especially for developing countries and

more danger of armed conflicts, as reflected in the killings in Liberia,

Somalia and the former Yugoslavia. These conflicts pose a grave danger to the

very life of human civilization.

The forty-seventh session of the General Assembly is being held at a

critical juncture: we are between two worlds one dead, the other powerless

to be born. We are overshadowed by the dangers of unipolarity, economic

decadence in the developing countries, ecological dangers in the developed

countries, and the persistence of old injustices in Palestine and South Africa.

This diagnosis of the state of the world applies to the contemporary

global configuration and to regional scenes alike. In the global setting, a -

period of deep-seated, intense East-West conflict has ended with the

conclusion of the cold war. As a result, an established order has given way

to an as yet undefined future. At the regional level, there are equally mixed

results. For example, in South Africa, not long ago, the progress made in the

last two years in eradicating apartheid all of a sudden appeared to be on the

brink of collapse as the apartheid regime not only retrenched, but also

perpetuated township violence and refused to concede the major demands of the

African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress and other democratic

forces.

Looking at the areas of conflict, it appears as if, all of a sudden, the

conclusion of the cold war has given way to a kind of Hobbesian state of

nature in which peoples and nations are caught in perpetual conflict and

competition over land, resources, food, labour and markets.

In the last two years alone, Africa has witnessed several intra-State

conflicts which have resulted in heavy human costs, in terms of casualties and

dislocations; direct material costs, in terms of property damage; and

opportunity costs. Neighbouring States have also paid heavily through their

efforts to strengthen their security on common borders, through caring for

refugees and through the diversion of their Governments' attention away from

developmental efforts to crisis management related to wars, armed conflicts

and insecurity.

In short, these conflicts have thwarted African efforts towards economic

recovery and peaceful transformation to a democratic order. Thus, while

encouraging Africa to transform its political and economic systems, the

developed nations have a moral and historical duty to assist the continent in

pursuing a sustainable development strategy that is people-oriented. Such

assistance will ensure that Africa pursues genuine development and rids itself

of a major cause of internal conflicts.

In the last year, Tanzania has been host and facilitator to mediation

efforts in the conflict in Rwanda. I am pleased to inform the Assembly that

the Government of Rwanda and the Rwandese Patriotic Front have been able to

achieve a cease-fire to set the stage for a lasting political solution.

Tanzania would like to congratulate them upon this great achievement, and to

pay tribute to the Chairman and Secretary-General of the Organization of

African Unity, to neighbouring States and to other countries for their

contributions to these efforts.

Angola and Mozambique have endured long periods of internal conflict. As

we meet here today, Angola has successfully completed a crucial multi-party

general election and Mozambique has recently signed a joint declaration with

RENAMO. These developments will determine the peace and security interests of

the two countries. Tanzania commends the Governments and peoples of Angola

and Mozambique for having taken the path of reconciliation and accommodation.

Unfortunately, the optimism expressed on Angola and Mozambique cannot be

extended to the intractable problems of the Middle East. Since the Madrid

Conference, several rounds of talks have been held. There have been at least

two outstanding obstacles to successful negotiations: Israel's refusal to

accept a Palestinian delegation composed of members of the Palestine

Liberation Organization, and Jewish refusal to freeze settlements in occupied

areas.

There can be no successful mediation in which the Palestinians, as one of

the parties, are continuously denied legitimacy. While Tanzania supports all

international efforts to resolve the conflict in the Middle East, the

mediation process must be based on the presumed equality of the parties to the

conflict. Effective mediation must also proceed from a clear consent and

valid representation of all the parties to the conflict.

What has been said of regional conflicts can also be stated of the

environment. As witnessed at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro,

humanity now faces one of its most serious sources of insecurity, the

ecological ill-health of the planet itself. Asymmetries in non-sustainable

development and industrialization, economic development and resource politics

are at the heart of the environmental debate.

Tanzania, like most other developing nations, has four major concerns

over the environment, namely: environmental space; environmental growth;

environmental conditionally; and environmental democracy. To explain these

concerns, we have to emphasize that the developed nations must reduce pressure

on the environment through corrective action to enable developing countries,

including Tanzania, to achieve environmental space for industrialization.

Environmental growth, that is, the provisions of resources to raise

living standards, is necessary to eradicate poverty.

Environmental conditionality must, by and large, be eradicated. Without

ignoring the relationship between technology and environmental degradation,

the present conditionalities on the provision of foreign assistance is a

diversion which tends to conceal real issues that hinder development efforts.

The developing countries are responsible for only a small part of the

pressures on the global environment.

Environmental democracy refers to participation by the developing

countries in the decision-making procedures in multilateral institutions

involving finance for the environment. Another component of environmental

democracy is to ensure that the question of economic development is not

subsumed under environmental concerns. Thus, the task for the international

community after the historic Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro will be to merge,

wisely, environmental policies with socio-economic development.

Tanzania looks to the establishment of a high-level commission on

sustainable development under Article 68 of the Charter.

The period from 1987 to 1992 could be regarded as an extraordinary

moment, one which has opened up opportunities to confront and surmount the old

and new instabilities and challenges to peace and security. Typical of the

period of transition in the international system, negotiations, as a

peace-making and policy-making instrument, have assumed renewed significance

in resolving old and new issues.

Indeed, the debate in the United Nations during the last two sessions of

the General Assembly has been dominated by one theme: the unprecedented

opportunity created by the end of the cold war to create a new world order.

There is no doubt that the end of super-Power rivalry has contributed

significantly to the ending of a number of conflicts, including those in

Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Namibia. This historic opportunity has

facilitated increased United Nations involvement in peace-keeping and

peacemaking activities in many parts of the world.

However, a new world Older must be based on the linkage between freedom

and development, justice, peace, security and democracy within nations and

among nations. From time immemorial, philosophers have reminded practitioners

of the primacy of human freedom that is possible in society and through

society only when structural inequalities and injustices have been eradicated.

Any new world order ought to be based on the greatest good, and in the

guarantee of equality and freedom for all. It must be based on the genuine

maintenance of peace and security in the broader sense of preventive

diplomacy, peacemaking, peace-keeping and peace-fostering. For one can

maintain security without necessarily maintaining peace, as the former may

require measures that uphold the status quo, while the latter could require

actions aimed at altering the existing situation. While security refers to

the absence of direct violence, peace focuses on the absence of the structural

violence of institutionalized injustice and inequalities. This approach is a

sine qua non for development, democracy and justice, and for peace and

security in general.

The conception of a new world order must begin with the reforms in the

United Nations and emphasize the important role of regional organizations such

as the Organization of African Unity and the Non-Aligned Movement. The role

of the United Nations must be reinterpreted to foster emancipation from

underdevelopment, injustice, inequalities and political domination. It must

spearhead both democracy and liberty in general, and the economic capacity to

enjoy that liberty meaningfully.

I reiterate that the United Nations, and especially the Security Council,

must be reformed because it is based on an outmoded concept of international

peace and security. The maintenance of peace and security cannot be

exclusively focused on traditional peace-keeping or peacemaking, nor can it be

left the exclusive domain of the Security Council. There is also an economic,

social and moral obligation to the international community as a whole.

The tragic conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Somalia indicate that

the traditional United Nations peace-keeping methods have outlived their

utility. Where the very survival of humanity is at stake, where the outbreaks

and the level of violence reach enormous proportions, threatening the very

fabric of human civilization, and where ethnic conflicts might necessitate

external intervention and thus threaten international peace and security, the

United Nations must be able to act promptly and decisively.

Somalia is a typical example. My delegation calls upon all parties

involved in the conflict to exercise restraint, to cooperate in facilitating

the distribution of humanitarian assistance and to set up a government of

national reconciliation. Tanzania applauds the efforts of the

Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Secretary-General of the

Organization of African Unity, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the

Arab League and individual Governments in providing humanitarian assistance

and in searching for a political solution in Somalia.

In January this year the Security Council requested the Secretary-General

to study and make recommendations on ways to strengthen and make more

efficient the United Nations capacity for preventive diplomacy, peacemaking

and peace-keeping in accordance with the United Nations Charter. Tanzania

commends the Secretary-General on his prompt, comprehensive and

thought-provoking response.

Any durable international system must have a sound legal regime,

including respect for and compliance with the rule of law at domestic and

international levels and a democratic pattern of interaction. It is in this

context that the General Assembly's declaration of the United Nations Decade

of International Law, from 1990 to 1999, must be supported. This declaration

is a clear indication of the concerted efforts of the United Nations in the

legal field to advance the search for a new world order. The

Secretary-General has underlined this very important point in his

recommendation for a much more effective use of the International Court of

Justice, including acceptance of the Court's compulsory jurisdiction.

However, an effective global legal regime presupposes the existence of

sound economic and political institutions: there is a mutually reinforcing

relationship.

The end of the cold war has tended to strengthen international concern

over a systematic policy framework for human development, and has provided the

opportunity for a greater range of sophisticated analyses and strategies on

the question of development. As I have stated previously, a sound new world

order based on human freedom is possible only in a reorganized global society

where structural inequalities and injustices are systematically eradicated.

Yet the Fourth United Nations Development Decade is beginning from an

unpromising base. Global macroeconomic indicators for the last 18 months

reveal a bleak picture. World per capita output remained unchanged in 1990,

fell by 2 per cent in 1991 and is expected to fall again, by about 1 per cent,

in 1992. Developing countries as a whole have for two consecutive years have

undergone an unprecedented decline in their per capita incomes. As the Group

of 77 has consistently pointed out, economic growth in the South has been

countered by inequality in the global monetary, financial and trade systems

and by dwindling resource flows, debt burdens, restrictions on the transfer of

technology, denial of market access, adverse terms of trade and declines in

the prices of the primary commodities that the South produces.

Among the developing countries, the African region was the worst hit.

Total African-region output increased by only 1.9 per cent in 1991, compared

with 3.2 per cent in 1990, while the non-oil-exporting countries' average rate

of growth of combined output! fell from 1.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent in 1991.

Southern Africa has the added problem of the worst drought in recent memory,

which threatens about 100 million people.

The gloomy economic indicators coincide with the post-cold-war

development of changes in the domestic policies of many developing countries,

including Tanzania. Restructuring is designed to enhance the dynamism of

national economies through the provision of economic enterprise and innovation

and opening up to the operation of market forces. The soundness and efficacy

of the policies aside, many of the domestic reforms also depend on a

supportive external environment at regional and global levels on such

important issues as debt-servicing burdens, capital flows, market access and

commodity prices.

Several conclusions can be drawn from an analysis of the global economy,

amongst which are, first, that economic divisions and rivalries inevitably

produce political conflicts; and, secondly, that there is a lopsided global

interdependence of growing inequalities within and between nations, which

cannot be resolved through narrow conceptions of power politics.

There can be no genuine democracy where development strategies do not

centre on humankind. As the South Commission report aptly defines it,

development

"... is a process which enables human beings to realize their potential,

build self-confidence, and lead lives of dignity and fulfilment. It is a

process which frees people from fear of want and exploitation, and is

also a process of growth, a society that is developing development is

people-centred efforts of the people, by and for the people".

This correct conception of development covers the essential variables of human

development, such as putting people at the centre of any development, the

correlation between human development and human freedom, advanced levels of

economic activity, and equitable domestic and global distributions of income

and opportunity. Indeed, questions such as how the disparities between the

poor and the rich can be reduced or why global markets fail to meet the needs

of the world's poorest focus on the restraining problem of human development.

Tanzania has followed with great interest the efforts by the

Secretary-General to restructure the United Nations. Tanzania believes that

reform and restructuring of the United Nations, involving both the

intergovernmental machinery and the Secretariat, should foster a more

efficient and effective structure without marginalizing the interests of the

Member States, and especially the developing countries.

As I stated earlier, the United Nations alone cannot succeed unless it

cooperates with regional organizations such as the Non-Aligned Movement and

the Organization of African Unity, which represent the aspirations of

developing nations. The roles of the Non-Aligned Movement and the

Organization of African Unity are not unique to modern third-world or African

conditions. The modern State system has historically been characterized by

the struggle for human freedom and development. This resolve has emanated

from two concurrent historical tendencies: on the one hand, great-Power

hegemony and exploitation; and, on the other hand, the opposition of the

overwhelming majority of the medium and small States to that exploitation.

None of the present changes in the international system has undermined these

central features of the 400-year-old State system. The number and identity of

hegemonies may change over time, but the existence and nature of the

struggle namely, the demand for the State system to function according to

the universality principle and for equality and justice between States has

not changed.

The plight of developing nations underscores the significance of the

Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of African Unity in the struggle to

bring equality and justice for the affairs of humanity. Tanzania believes that

these regional organizations provide the foundation for collective action in

fostering South-South economic cooperation, enhancing the democratization of

international relations, and renewing democratic debate and dialogue between

nations, especially North-South multilateral negotiations, which are currently

at a stalemate.

The end of the cold war should enhance rather than confuse our resolve to

build a new world order based on freedom, justice, equality and the

development of humanity as a single family. This approach is the one we must

take in the present period, when poor States and peoples are becoming poorer

and the rich are becoming richer, and must be seen as the real meaning of

democracy at national and global levels. Viewed from this perspective, it is

intolerable that any section of the same human family should not enjoy basic

economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights.

The human family of nations must not only examine the underlying causes

of conflicts, injustice and underdevelopment, it must also seek to change

social relationships and transform social structures in such a way that a more

just, equal and dignified world emerges. That new world order awaits us.

That world order beckons to us. It is a world order we must strive to achieve.