Tanzania, 1993

I

am delighted to extend to you, Sir, on behalf of the

Tanzanian delegation, our sincere congratulations on your

well-deserved election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its forty-eighth session. Over the past two

weeks you have already demonstrated your considerable

diplomatic skills and leadership qualities. We look forward

to a productive session under your guidance.

I would also like to extend my delegation’s appreciation

to your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Stoyan Ganev, for

the leadership he provided to the forty-seventh session of the

General Assembly.

The Secretary-General and the staff he leads have

continued to give of their best to our Organization. Over the

past year they have demonstrated a remarkable capacity to

take on additional responsibilities despite dwindling

resources. We owe them a debt of gratitude and they have

a right to expect our support as they carry out the work we

have entrusted to them.

6 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

During the past year, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,

Monaco, Eritrea, the Former Yugoslav Republic of

Macedonia and Andorra have joined the United Nations as

sovereign and independent States. It gives me great pleasure

to extend to them a warm welcome and sincere

congratulations and to say how much we look forward to

working closely with all of them in the common endeavour

to make our world a better place for our peoples and for all

mankind.

Another year has passed since we last met in the

general debate and pledged to intensify our efforts to satisfy

the aspirations of our peoples for world peace and security,

for economic and social justice and for progress and

development, in conditions of freedom and human dignity.

It is proper that as we start another session, we should take

stock of the progress made towards the realization of these

aspirations.

The problems of southern Africa remained a major

preoccupation of my Government during the past year. My

delegation commends the international community for its

contribution in the search for solutions to the problems of

apartheid in South Africa and the conflicts in Angola and

Mozambique.

Over the last 12 months, the advance towards the

eradication of apartheid has brought the goal nearer than

ever before. The call by the representatives of the majority

people of South Africa, notably by President Nelson

Mandela of the African National Congress of Azania (ANC),

for the lifting of virtually all remaining economic and trade

sanctions means that the progress made thus far, and the

progress soon to be made, represent profound and

irreversible change in terms of the Declaration on Apartheid

and its Destructive Consequences in Southern Africa.

Whatever happens, South Africa will never be the same.

A very important recent signal suggesting that the

turning-point is very close was the fixing of 27 April 1994

as election day for all South Africans. My delegation

warmly welcomes this development and urges all concerned

to work to achieve that target. The most important

development, however, has been the enactment last month of

the legislation necessary for the establishment of an

independent electoral commission, an independent media

council and an independent broadcasting authority as well as

a Transitional Executive Council.

Regrettably, there remain many obstacles on the road.

Violence remains the most serious obstacle impeding

progress towards the establishment of a united, democratic

and non-racial South Africa. With 20,000 murders per year,

according to records compiled by the Southern African

Research and Documentation Centre, South Africa’s

reputation of being the most violent country in the world is

well deserved. The leadership of the democratic forces in

the country must be commended for denying the forces of

death and destruction the satisfaction of derailing the peace

process. But the threat remains real and great, as evidenced

by the brutal assassination of Chris Hani in April and the

storming by a right-wing racist white group of the

negotiations at the World Trade Centre in June.

International monitoring of the violence has provided

some reassurance to the victims of apartheid violence. The

temerity and audacity shown by the perpetrators of violence

and the blind eye turned to it by some members, including

leaders, of the country’s security forces, argue for a much

larger, higher-profile United Nations presence in South

Africa. I urge the United Nations to respond positively to

the urgent pleas of the victims of violence for more United

Nations monitors.

Another obstacle is the non-participation by some

groups in the peace process and the threat of violence issued

by some of them. This is yet another argument for

increasing the presence and raising the profile of the United

Nations, and of the world community as a whole, in South

Africa.

Angola poses a similar but more urgent challenge to the

United Nations. If it has a conscience, the international

community simply cannot allow the continuation of a

conflict that is estimated to be claiming a thousand lives a

day. It must act to stop this carnage.

At the same time, we must make every effort to enable

the United Nations to recover from the considerable damage

done to its credibility and moral authority by its inability to

respond adequately and promptly to the grave challenges

posed by Jonas Savimbi. The adoption of Security Council

resolution 864 (1993) on 15 September 1993 has served to

put Jonas Savimbi on notice that the United Nations will no

longer allow his obstinacy and prevarication to continue to

thwart the will of the Angolan people, whose hopes for

peace and an opportunity to improve their lives have been so

rudely shaken by his greed for power. UNITA and Savimbi

must be left in no doubt that there is more to come if they

continue to ignore the pleas of the international community

for a cease-fire, for a return to the Bicesse Accords and for

respect for the electoral verdict of the Angolan people.

Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 7

This applies equally to UNITA’s obligation to allow

and to facilitate access by humanitarian and relief

organizations to the victims of the conflict. Many relief

personnel have exposed themselves to serious danger in

order to help victims of the conflict. We commend them for

their heroism and compassion. The best form of gratitude,

however, is to ensure that those responsible for this criminal

conduct receive appropriate punishment.

Although different, Mozambique offers some parallels

with Angola, and it remains to be seen during the

implementation of the Mozambican peace accords whether

the correct lessons have been learned from the Angolan

experience. The delay in the implementation of the General

Peace Agreement is a matter of great concern because of the

obvious threat it poses to the cease-fire. We are pleased to

note that the Security Council has taken the same serious

view of the delay. We are pleased also to note that at long

last the leader of RENAMO, Mr. Afonso Dhlakama, has

been able to overcome the difficulties which until recently

prevented him from meeting with President Chissano. We

welcome the talks between the two leaders and commend

President Chissano for bending over backwards to

accommodate RENAMO. But we are concerned that the

good will and magnanimity of the Government of

Mozambique are not being reciprocated by RENAMO and

its leadership. Instead, we observe disturbing signs of its

following in the footsteps of Savimbi.

For example, the Government is still not able to provide

administrative services in the areas under the control of

RENAMO. The United Nations has a duty to prevent such

a blatant violation of the General Peace Agreement. But,

more ominously, RENAMO seems to be contriving to create

a situation in which it hopes to persuade the world to accept

the holding of elections before the process of demobilization

and the integration of forces has begun. We must spare no

efforts to enable the United Nations to do all in its power to

prevent an Angola-type situation from emerging in

Mozambique.

Regrettably, as the year continued there were more

disappointments than successes. With the exception of

Angola, perhaps the most disconcerting were the setbacks

suffered by the peace efforts in the former Yugoslavia - in

particular in Bosnia and Herzegovina - in Afghanistan and

in Somalia, where the turn of events has led to a wholly

unexpected and unwelcome confrontation between the United

Nations and one of the factions in the tragic fratricidal

conflict plaguing that country.

We must do all we can to protect and preserve the

integrity and moral authority of the United Nations in

Somalia. Those responsible for the killing of United Nations

peace-keeping forces and for instigating attacks against them

must be left in no doubt about the dire consequences of their

criminal conduct. But it goes without saying that the United

Nations forces must themselves act with maximum restraint.

Because Somalia is such a new experience for the

United Nations, the outcome of its operation there is of

crucial importance to the international community. The

United Nations cannot afford to fail in its mission of

humanitarian assistance, peace-building and peace-keeping

in Somalia. Nor can it afford serious mistakes. My

delegation therefore welcomes the ongoing debate on how

best to achieve the United Nations mission in Somalia. The

call for the United Nations to refocus its attention on the

original mandate and to pay greater attention to the search

for a political solution, along the lines of the Addis Ababa

Agreement, deserves most urgent attention.

The cease-fire in Liberia, while holding, will remain

fragile while tensions remain high and the end of the crisis

is not in sight. The countries of the Economic Community

of West African States (ECOWAS) must be commended for

undertaking an extremely costly and dangerous peace-

keeping mission in Liberia on behalf of the international

community. They need more than the moral and political

support of the world community. We therefore welcome the

establishment, by Security Council resolution 866 (1993) of

22 September 1993, of the United Nations Observer Mission

in Liberia (UNOMIL), which will work alongside the

precedent-setting African peace-keeping effort under the

auspices of ECOWAS to help resolve the Liberian conflict.

The people of Western Sahara are understandably

frustrated that, five years after the adoption of the United

Nations plan for a referendum in Western Sahara, the

international community has still not been able to give

8 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

them an opportunity to exercise their right to

self-determination. It is not good enough to tell them that

every effort is being made to overcome the problems which

have prevented the holding of the referendum. After five

years of discussion of the modalities of implementation, they

have a right to ask whether all the parties have been

negotiating in good faith.

Another African conflict-resolution initiative which

deserves urgent United Nations support is the Peace

Agreement between the Government of Rwanda and the

Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), which was signed in

Arusha, Tanzania, on 4 August 1993 after a year of arduous

and protracted negotiations. As Facilitator in the

negotiations, Tanzania pays tribute to the parties to the

negotiations for their spirit of give and take, which enabled

the negotiations to succeed. We pay tribute to the

Organization of African Unity (OAU) for its invaluable role

throughout the peace process. We also pay tribute to the

observer countries - Belgium, Burundi, France, Germany,

Senegal, Uganda, the United States and Zaire - and to the

United Nations for their encouragement and support. Nor

should we forget the invaluable contribution of Mali,

Nigeria, Tunisia and Zimbabwe, which provided personnel

for the Neutral Military Observer Group (NMOG II), which

has been monitoring the cease-fire.

As implementation of the Agreement begins, priority

must now be given to the establishment of the neutral

international force. The joint delegation of the Government

of Rwanda and the Rwandese Patriotic Front currently

visiting the United Nations has been stressing that everything

else hinges on the establishment of that force. I echo their

appeal for speed in establishing the force. My delegation

therefore welcomes the timely adoption of Security Council

resolution 872 (1993) on 5 October 1993, authorizing the

establishment of the United Nations Assistance Mission for

Rwanda (UNAMIR), and urges its speedy implementation.

Comparisons are inadequate for measuring the suffering

or damage endured by people in a war, but it is difficult to

think of another current conflict in which a whole people has

been subjected to the suffering, inhumanity and indignities

that have been imposed on the Muslim population of Bosnia

and Herzegovina. The inability of the United Nations to

offer any hope to the Bosnian Muslims is one of the greatest

tragedies of our time. It is bad enough that the international

community has failed to put an end to the atrocities which

continue to be inflicted on the Bosnian Muslims. But for the

world

community in these circumstances to continue to deny them

the right to acquire the means with which to protect

themselves is incomprehensible. The least that the United

Nations can do is to lift the arms embargo on Bosnia and

Herzegovina in order to enable the people to defend their

families and their country.

At long last there are signs of an emerging solution to

the long-festering sore of the root cause of the Middle East

problem - the question of Palestine - the persistence of

which has for 40 years posed a serious moral dilemma for

the international community’s sense of justice, fairness and

equality. The agreement signed in Washington on

13 September 1993 between Israel and the Palestine

Liberation Organization (PLO) on mutual recognition, which

also provides for limited autonomy for Palestinians in the

Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, has been

rightly hailed as a major breakthrough in the Middle East

negotiations. My delegation joins in welcoming this

development and in congratulating Israel and the PLO on the

courage they have shown in taking this bold step towards the

resolution of the intractable question of Palestine. The first

step is always the most difficult to take. We are, therefore,

hopeful that Israel and the PLO will now be able to move

quickly to advance the process towards a just and lasting

solution to the question of Palestine and thus open the way

towards a comprehensive settlement of the Arab/Israel

conflict.

For the people of Cyprus - another vexed question that

has defied solution for nearly 20 years - a meaningful new

world order must be one that respects the unity, sovereignty

and territorial integrity as well as the non-aligned status of

that country, and restores a sense of hope to the two

communities for a future of partnership and cooperation in

complete equality and human dignity. It is a matter of great

disappointment that the hopes raised by the resumption early

in the year of negotiations under the good offices of the

Secretary-General proved to be premature.

In Cambodia, the efforts of the United Nations to find

a just and enduring end to the long-running conflict have

begun to bear fruit. The successful organization and

supervision of the Cambodian elections concluded an

important and crucial phase of the peace effort. However,

the people of Cambodia are not yet out of the woods. There

is still a lot of healing of wounds to be done. We applaud

the efforts being exerted to enable those who walked out of

the peace process to rejoin it as the phase of reconciliation,

reconstruction and development begins.

Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 9

There is good news too with regard to the situation in

Central America. There, the situation has continued to

evolve positively, thus rewarding the international

community in its efforts to encourage the region to find

regional solutions to its problems.

My delegation welcomes the growing involvement of

the Security Council in the search for solutions to many

conflicts around the world. But the Council’s capacity to

respond to the growing demands for its intervention and the

readiness of the international community to continue to

repose its trust and confidence in the Council will depend on

its ability to institute the necessary reforms.

One such reform that has been called for is the

expansion of the Council to take account of today’s vastly

changed circumstances in comparison with 1965, when the

Council was last expanded. I need not stress that any

expansion must take account of the need to ensure equity in

geographical representation. This also applies to the call for

consideration to be given to increasing the number of

permanent members.

Another reform relates to the need to address the

problem of selectivity by the Council in responding to

various conflicts. Unless the Council is seen to treat equally

all challenges to its authority, it runs the risk of losing the

international community’s support and trust, which are

crucial if the Council’s actions are to be accepted as

legitimate.

In addition, the old problem of the outdated veto is still

with us and failure to do something about it will not make

it go away. The very encouraging practice of reaching

decisions by consensus has reduced the demand for the

abolition of the veto. This has helped, but it is not enough.

So long as the veto exists, the threat of its use will continue

to affect the outcome of debates. One member will always

be able to thwart the will of the international community.

How the Council does its work is also a matter of great

interest and concern to the international community. The

call for transparency is a very legitimate one, but of greater

concern is the growing conviction on the part of a large

segment of the membership of the United Nations that the

Council has been stretching its interpretation of the Charter

to include things not foreseen in Chapter VII, such as

humanitarian emergencies, human rights, ecological threats,

drug trafficking and the like. While the Council must be

enabled to respond to new situations, there is a real danger

that it will allow itself to be guided not by the Charter but

by the dictates of a few Member States.

Disarmament has always been a major preoccupation of

the international community for reasons that are self-evident.

There are far too many weapons around the world - more

than nations need for their legitimate defence. The priority

given to the chemical weapons Convention reflects the

international community’s concern about the great danger

posed to international peace and security by this particular

weapon of mass destruction. Regrettably, nuclear arms,

which pose an even greater threat, have not received the

priority consideration they deserve. While we applaud the

agreements concluded by the United States and the Russian

Federation for sharp reductions in their nuclear arsenals, the

fact should not be overlooked that, even after the START

Treaty, there are today in their stockpiles five times more of

this category of nuclear weapons than existed at the time of

the signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons in 1968, and the level is the same as it was when

they began negotiations nine years before the START Treaty

was signed. The reality of the nuclear threat becomes more

evident if we take account of the nuclear-weapon stocks of

the other nuclear-weapon States. That is why we must urge

all nuclear-weapon States to accord the highest priority to

nuclear disarmament.

My delegation has always regarded the non-proliferation

Treaty, despite its flaws, and a comprehensive test-ban treaty

as important international instruments that can advance the

cause of nuclear disarmament. It goes without saying that

before the non-proliferation Treaty can perform this role, its

inherent flaws - especially its provisions discriminating

between nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear-weapon States -

must be addressed. The two major nuclear-weapon States

have agreed on some reductions in their stockpiles. They

need to go much further and to make clear that the objective

is the eventual elimination of those stockpiles, which means

that they must stop, reverse and eventually put an end to

vertical proliferation. The 1995 Review Conference of the

Treaty will be a success to the extent that it comes to grips

with these flaws.

The most hopeful recent development towards a

comprehensive test-ban treaty has been the voluntary

moratorium or restraint on testing unilaterally agreed to by

all the nuclear-weapon States. That is why we welcome the

decision of the United States of America to extend its

moratorium. We very much hope that this extension will

persuade the other nuclear-weapon States to maintain their

moratoriums and that the halt can be used to negotiate a

comprehensive test-ban treaty under the auspices of the

Conference on Disarmament or the Amendment Conference

of the partial test-ban Treaty.

10 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

The world economic statistics for the period 1992 to

1993 send mixed signals. Overall, despite strong growth in

a number of developing countries, there was negligible

growth in the world economy. For much of the African

continent, per capita output has continued to decline, placing

the continent in a precarious situation. The average growth

of gross domestic product in Africa reached a new low of

1.4 per cent in 1992, owing in part to drought, civil wars,

political instability and the long-term effects of deteriorating

terms of trade as a result of the inequitable operation of the

present world order.

The United Nations agenda for the development of

Africa in the 1990s, adopted by the General Assembly at its

last session, seems unlikely to fare any better than its

predecessor, the United Nations Programme of Action for

African Economic Recovery and Development, 1986-1990.

As became obvious during the review of the Programme of

Action carried out in 1990, that initiative fell short of the

continent’s expectations. Nevertheless, Tanzania believes

that both the United Nations and the international community

at large still have the ability to play a greater role in

assisting the continent to overcome its poverty.

Recovery of investments is crucial to the long-term

improvement of the economic performance of the African

continent. However, contrary to earlier expectations,

economic reform has not brought a significant increase in

investments. Throughout Africa, it remains far below its

peak level of the mid-1970s as a result of foreign exchange

constraints arising from deteriorating terms of trade and

limited capacity to import capital goods, and because of the

debt burden and debt servicing.

Tanzania welcomes the initiative taken by some donor

countries to address the problem of the debt crisis by writing

off part of the bilateral official debt of the least developed

countries. However, this is only part of the solution to the

problem. Apart from debt-relief measures, Africa needs a

fresh infusion of financial resources to improve the rate of

investment and to accelerate the economic growth of

affected countries.

It is for this reason that Tanzania welcomes the

initiative of the Government of Japan to organize, in

collaboration with the United Nations and the Global

Coalition for Africa, the Tokyo International Conference on

African Development in October 1993, with a view to

highlighting the issue of African economic development as

one of the central themes on the international agenda for the

twenty-first century. My delegation hopes that the Tokyo

Conference will come up with concrete recommendations on

measures designed to help the African continent overcome

its problems once and for all, as well as to remind the

international community of its commitment to Africa and the

need to help the continent face the challenges of the twenty-

first century from a position of strength.

We have been walking the road from Rio for more than

a year now. In Rio we made a strong commitment to

protect our planet by promoting sustainable development

through a global partnership. Though a basic framework to

make the world’s environment healthier in the twenty-first

century was laid out at Rio, we have not, so far, begun

making those commitments a reality. The truth is, the Earth

is environmentally poorer than it was a year ago.

The high-level Commission on Sustainable

Development has been formed to monitor progress in the

implementation of Agenda 21 and other activities related to

the integration of environmental and developmental goals

through the United Nations system. Allow me to express

my delegation’s hope that this Commission will be an

action-oriented body which will effectively translate the

commitments made in Rio into a reality, and that it will not

end up being financially strapped, as has often been the fate

of other United Nations institutions.

A milestone reached at Rio was the decision to prepare

an international convention to combat desertification and

drought. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for

the elaboration of this convention has already held its first

and second substantive sessions and it is hoped that,

hopefully by this time next year, a convention to combat

desertification and drought will have been finalized. While

welcoming the progress made during the first two

substantive sessions, Tanzania wishes to call for maximum

support and cooperation from all countries to ensure the

success of the global convention, which has particular

relevance for Africa. The convention should be looked

upon, not only as a mechanism to attract resources, but also

as a global partnership in combating a global phenomenon

threatening the sustainable development of over 900 million

people worldwide.

There is no end to our expectations in fulfilment of the

United Nations. As the largest world family, it has to take

care of all the members of the family, rich and poor, able

and disabled. The world would be a better place for mankind

if we in the United Nations act expeditiously, judiciously

and fairly. After all, it is the people who constitute the

States that need help.