Tanzania, 1996

Permit me at the outset to

congratulate you, Ambassador Razali, on your election to

the presidency of the fifty-first session of the General

Assembly. Your election is a fitting tribute to your

distinguished career in diplomacy, an expression of

confidence in your abilities and a reflection of the high

regard in which you and your country, Malaysia, are held

by the international community. You have our confidence,

and I can assure you of Tanzania’s full support and

cooperation as you guide the deliberations of this session.

I commend also your predecessor, Mr. Freitas do Amaral

of Portugal, who very ably presided over the historic fiftieth

session of the Assembly.

My appreciation goes also to the Secretary-General,

His Excellency Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a

distinguished son of Africa, who for the past five years

has worked tirelessly to enhance the image of the

Organization as well as its ability to meet the challenges

of the rapidly evolving international environment. He has

provided dedicated leadership at a particularly difficult

time in the history of the United Nations, enduring often

unwarranted personal criticism even as he was operating

in a situation of diminishing resources on the one hand,

and escalating, often conflicting, expectations on the other

hand.

My predecessor in office stood at this rostrum

exactly two years ago and, in bidding farewell to the

United Nations, spoke of the political transition then

under way in my country and of preparations for the first

multi-party elections in Tanzania in over 30 years. He

underlined his intention to bequeath to the people of

Tanzania a functioning democracy leveraged upon a

shared national culture of political accommodation and

tolerance. Today, I am proud to be here as a product of

that process of transition, to reaffirm our commitment and

abiding faith in the United Nations in its endeavour to

promote international peace and security as well as

economic and social development throughout the world.

The United Nations has, since its inception,

expanded its role in the international system

tremendously, becoming a major player in national

development and international cooperation. The various

summits that it has organized in recent years, coupled

with its numerous activities covering the entire spectrum of

political, social and economic spheres, in all corners of the

world, is testimony to the critical role of the United Nations

in resolving the national and international problems facing

mankind.

The United Nations has helped maintain international

peace and security at very critical times. It has overseen the

delivery of peoples and nations from the shackles of

colonialism and institutionalized racism to independence.

As a result of these efforts, membership has increased

almost fourfold. The ideals of freedom and justice and

human rights are understood by most of the world, even if

they may not always be observed. The United Nations has

built a common global culture of shared values, and it has

also helped in promoting development, building social and

economic infrastructures and much more.

Today, the United Nations stands at a crossroads. New

challenges, not least those brought about by a rapidly

changing international environment, keep demanding its

undivided attention. The challenge before us, as we stand

on the threshold of the new millennium, is to invigorate and

reinforce this Organization, drawing upon the collective

resources and knowledge of our world and acting in

partnership.

Likewise, the ideal we all share for participatory

democracy in each Member country needs to find

expression on the international plane as well. In the course

of the last few years, we have agonized over the process of

reform within this Organization. We all want an efficient

and revitalized United Nations — one that is more attuned

to the realities we live with and capable of meeting the new

challenges we face. We must reform its methods of work

and bring greater institutional and policy coherence into the

Organization. Adjustment and realignment are necessary

processes for the renewal and continued relevance of this

Organization. Tanzania salutes all those individuals,

institutions and Governments that have contributed to this

process of review.

It is our hope, however, that any reform will preserve

and enhance the basic principles underlying the United

Nations. We want reform — but only the kind of reform

that will ultimately strengthen the hand of our Organization

in promoting its ideals. We want greater transparency in the

work of our institutions, and the reinforcement of the

principles of sovereign equality of States and justice. We

need democratization of our institutions, and greater balance

in representation on the Security Council between the

developed North and the developing South.

We cannot, however, expect the United Nations to

be, and do, all this and more without giving it the means

with which to work. Meeting our financial obligations to

the Organization must, therefore, complement our

demands upon the Organization and serve to demonstrate

our commitment to the ideals it seeks to promote.

Just as we have the right to applaud the

achievements of the United Nations, we must also have

the courage to concede that it has yet to make a dent in

the scourge of abject poverty that afflicts the greater part

of its membership. This is where we must now direct its

attention and resources. The 1995 World Summit for

Social Development in Copenhagen was a good starting

point, and we must implement the letter and spirit of the

commitments made there. Unless the issue of poverty is

addressed comprehensively, we cannot achieve

meaningful and enduring peace. We must restore the

development agenda to the heart of the philosophy and

work of the United Nations.

The world is largely considered peaceful because

there has not been a third world war. Yet, for those who

are menaced by regional conflicts, for the victims of

oppression and injustice, and for those who subsist in

unremitting poverty amid a world of plenty, their world

is at war. Taken together, these people account for the

largest part of the world population, and the United

Nations must give them the attention they deserve today.

Our United Nations cannot speak of a peaceful world

when the future of our children — and their right to grow

up as children — is undermined by conflict and poverty,

and when urban squalor is breeding anarchy in local

communities. Peace must be pursued in a comprehensive

manner, taking account of these equal, if not greater,

threats to peace within societies and among countries.

Our collective shame at poverty amid riches must

find expression in our joint action to promote

development. Today, the developing world is bombarded

by many development initiatives. We are urged to work

harder, to liberalize our economies, to cut Government

spending, to institute sound macroeconomic policies, to

promote the private sector and a host of other measures.

Invariably, our countries have done so, quite often at

great social expense, the magnitude of which developed

countries would not countenance in their own economies.

We have done so in the knowledge that ultimately it

is we who must take the bull by the horns. Indeed, we

accept that we must be more competitive in the market

place and bring greater efficiency to Government. We

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need to use our resources more rationally; we need to fight

waste and corruption in Government; we need to streamline

our bureaucratic processes, liberalize our economies and

open our markets to international commerce. That is why

most of us are signatories to the establishment of the new

world trade regime under the auspices of the World Trade

Organization. Yet our capacity to access, and benefit from,

the global markets — the markets of the developed

world — is constrained by our underdevelopment, the

protectionist policies of the industrialized countries, and the

ever-deteriorating terms of trade.

Unregulated market forces will not help the very

weak, poor and vulnerable countries, whose special

circumstances and needs must be attended to. For us, that

is the priority agenda for the World Trade Organization, not

the introduction of new issues before we perfect the system

we have now. The Ruggiero plan to extend tariff-free

access in the markets of industrialized countries to products

from developing countries is welcome and deserves wide

support.

We now need a mutually beneficial creative

partnership between the developed North and the

developing South. Sustainable economic recovery and

growth in the South is beneficial to the North as well. Only

a prosperous South will be a more meaningful player in

global commerce. We shall then be able to buy more from

the North, thus freeing the conscience of the developed

world from the unending obligation to extend charity, and

control illegal immigration. This creative partnership must

also recognize the interdependent nature of our world and

how ultimately we affect each other. To help the South

recover is not an act of simple charity but of building the

foundations for a more secure and stable world. We made

a call for action at the ninth United Nations Conference on

Trade and Development (UNCTAD IX) at Midrand in

South Africa earlier this year. We must reiterate that call

today.

Tanzania, like the rest of the developing countries, is

determined to face its responsibilities for economic and

human development. We cannot, however, make

meaningful progress when the millstone of external debt

continues to hang around our necks, stifling recovery and

growth. The question of the unbearable external debt must

be addressed urgently if our creative partnership against

global poverty is to bear fruit.

Many proposals for debt relief have been discussed

over time. We recognize and appreciate these initiatives,

including the recent proposals for extraordinary debt relief

measures for a selected group of severely indebted

countries. The fact remains, however, that no

comprehensive action is imminent save for limited

measures taken unilaterally, on a case-by-case basis.

Urgent, coordinated and comprehensive action remains

necessary to alleviate this debt burden, including the

cancellation of the debts of least developed countries,

whose servicing obligations gobble up their entire

earnings. Only then can we hope for an economic

turnaround for them. It is the duality of debt cancellation

and access to markets that will enable countries like

Tanzania to benefit in a liberalized world market place,

and hasten the pace of social and economic development.

Another heavy burden for developing countries,

especially those without fossil fuel sources of energy, is

the cost input of energy for development. In this

connection, I wish to hail the World Solar Summit, held

on 16 and 17 September 1996 in Harare, which helped to

focus world political attention on the urgent and

imperative need to provide reliable, sustainable and clean

sources of energy to all the people of the world, including

to the 400 million homes and the 2.4 billion people in the

developing world who currently have no access to

electricity. We all know that, without electricity, no rapid

development of those communities will be forthcoming.

The Harare Summit agreed on a framework for a

10-year solar energy programme. We must all give it the

political support it needs and deserves if it is to be

effective. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro,

we all agreed that failure to develop sustainable and clean

sources of energy would result in problems for all of us,

rich and poor alike. Deforestation in Africa, Latin

America and Asia will affect the countries involved and

not involved alike. As long as 92.8 per cent of the energy

requirements in Tanzania are met from wood fuel, there

is no way that the Government can protect the natural

forests unless alternative sources of energy are available

at affordable rates. It is in the interest of all humanity and

of future generations to facilitate the development of

alternative, affordable, sustainable and clean sources of

energy for everyone.

Tanzania is concerned at the lack of progress in the

implementation of the United Nations peace plan for

Western Sahara. The international community cannot and

must not retreat from this unfinished business. We must

reaffirm the inalienable right of the Sahraoui people to

self-determination and independence and, to that end,

support the holding of a free and fair referendum. We

urge the two sides, the Kingdom of Morocco and the

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Frente Polisario, to initiate direct talks, which would create

a climate of confidence and permit the resumption of the

implementation of the settlement plan.

We wish to keep our hopes alive with regard to the

situation in the Middle East and earnestly call for faster and

strict implementation of the peace accords. The Israeli

Government has a particular responsibility in this respect.

We reached a time when we thought that our dreams for

the peaceful coexistence of the Palestinian people and the

Israeli people were on the verge of coming true. We

commend all those who have been instrumental in

promoting the peace process. We urge greater restraint on

all sides, which must accept that the secure way to

sustainable peace and security is through negotiation.

I shall now turn to the Burundi crisis. We see our role

in Burundi as one not of benevolence, but of duty — duty

to help our brothers and sisters there to step back from the

brink of mutual destruction to the middle ground of

dialogue, political accommodation and national

reconciliation. We began our efforts within the Organization

of African Unity and gradually turned over the task of

bringing the political forces in sustained dialogue to former

President, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, within the framework

of the Mwanza talks. Not only was the military coup of 25

July 1996 an illegal and unconstitutional act; it also

undermined the efforts in the region to promote dialogue

and restore peace to that most tormented country. The coup

is unacceptable to all regional leaders and we demand a

return to legitimacy and a negotiated political settlement

that will guarantee democracy and the security of

minorities.

In order to speed up the process of compliance, the

region has imposed economic sanctions on Burundi. Those

sanctions will remain in place until all the conditions set at

Arusha are met by the military rulers in Bujumbura. These

are not unreasonable conditions. They are the restoration of

the National Assembly, which is a democratic institution of

legality that derived its mandate from the Burundian people;

removing the ban on political parties in the country; and the

resumption of unconditional political negotiations with all

the parties to the conflict. We have, at the same time, made

it clear to the Burundi people that the sanctions are meant

only to secure the compliance of their military rulers with

these conditions, and nothing more. Once this has been

done, Tanzania, the region and, indeed, the international

community have all reiterated that they are prepared to

resume their assistance and cooperation in the process of

restoring peace and rebuilding that country. We can all

pledge our help, but the challenge of making peace is one

that only the Burundian people and those who claim

leadership of that country can shoulder. The onus of

bringing peace to their county rests squarely upon their

shoulders. The key to a sustainable solution is in their

own hands. We can only help.

At the same time we, the neighbours and the rest of

the international community, have an inescapable

responsibility to save the Burundian people from self-

destruction. We cannot stand by and watch the

perpetuation of killings, the steady degeneration of the

security situation and the catastrophe they portend for the

country and the subregion.

As we seek to help the Burundian people retrace the

path of dialogue, we remain preoccupied by the fragility

of the political situation in the Great Lakes region as a

whole. While Rwanda is steadily progressing along the

path of recovery, the wounds of war and genocide have

yet to heal. That country needs the solidarity and support

of the international community.

One of the serious consequences of conflict in the

region has been the massive human displacement, and

refugees now constitute a tremendous burden for the

neighbouring countries. Tanzania is currently hosting over

1 million refugees from Rwanda and Burundi. The

implications of their presence in such large numbers

within limited localities have been tremendous in terms of

the destruction of the environment, increased insecurity

and criminality, and the social and economic burden they

have imposed upon the host communities. The traditional

hospitality of Tanzanians towards refugees is wearing

very thin indeed.

We appreciate the work of the Office of the United

Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other

humanitarian agencies in offering protection and succour

to the refugees. What they have done is very useful, but

it is not enough to offset the burden that these refugees

place upon our communities. We call upon the

international community, in the name of human solidarity,

to redouble its assistance to meet the urgent needs of

these refugees, while at the same time addressing the

long-term effects attendant on hosting them. Above all,

we must help both Rwanda and Burundi to address the

root causes of these human displacements. The ultimate

goal must be the voluntary repatriation of the refugees to

their home countries. To us, the creation of an

environment that will facilitate such a process of

repatriation is now a priority.

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Whether in Liberia, Somalia or elsewhere in the

world, we see the need for courage and statesmanship to

defeat the temptations of political unilateralism and promote

dialogue and greater human solidarity. The courage to rise

above deep-seated prejudices and fears — the courage to

depart from traditional rigidity that has made conflict

endemic in some parts of the world — is the key that will

open up a new era of dialogue, political accommodation

and national concord. We have seen how such courage and

statesmanship can reverse long-standing hostilities and build

on the realism of our shared destiny as human beings. The

Middle East, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Africa and

Angola are cases in point. Difficulties remain, but we have

crossed the Rubicon and, with determination, we can

maintain a steady pace towards peace in these and other

areas around the world. The United Nations played a key

role in this task. It will have to play an even greater role in

consolidating the progress towards peace.

The end of the cold war did not, unfortunately, usher

in the spring of collective peace and the blossoming of the

flowers of international cooperation. The world is still

divided — even if not on ideological lines — between

those who are armed and those who are unarmed. Vast

nuclear arsenals remain and their technological

improvement continues unabated. The hopes for collective

peace run the risk of being thwarted by the unilateralism of

those who are armed with the most deadly weapons. My

country is concerned about the vertical proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction and the unremitting desire of

those who have them to rationalize their possession. This

undermines peace.

Since the coming into force two years ago of the 1982

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, we have

witnessed the establishment of the various institutions

envisaged in the Convention. We are pleased that, at long

last, there is positive movement towards ensuring the

regularized use of the oceans and their resources to the

benefit of all people the world over. The Government of

Tanzania attaches great importance to ensuring that the

make-up of the International Seabed Authority in its

formative years is so structured as to facilitate the carrying

out of its responsibilities in the manner envisaged in the

Convention and implementation Agreement of 1994.

The establishment of the International Tribunal on the

Law of the Sea has added a fillip to the Convention, and

the election of its judges last August was another milestone

in the work of the United Nations. In this connection, we

express our appreciation to the States Parties to the

Convention on the Law of the Sea for electing a Tanzanian,

The Honourable Joseph S. Warioba, as one of the judges

of the Tribunal. We congratulate all members of the

Tribunal on being entrusted with such an historic mission.

The founding of the United Nations was inspired by

the human solidarity which the world sought to promote

five decades ago. It is that solidarity which our nations

gathered here last year to commemorate. What holds our

nations together, despite their diversity, is the common

bond and solidarity we feel for each other as human

beings.

Today, more than ever before, we need that

solidarity in order to deal with the myriad problems we

all face together: the problems of poverty and

underdevelopment, peace and security, justice and human

rights, disarmament and the environment, international

terrorism and drug trafficking and many others. All

require joint and coordinated international action. Those

more powerful amongst us can try to solve these

problems unilaterally, but in order for their efforts to bear

fruit, they too need the cooperation of everyone. That is

why I invite this Assembly to embark on a mission to

rediscover human solidarity and to build structures for

global partnership, the better world which the founding

fathers of this Organization set out to establish 51 years

ago.

As an African leader, I wish to end my speech by

commending and supporting the United Nations

Secretary-General for the United Nations System-wide

Special Initiative on Africa he launched on 15 March of

this year, which seeks to provide coordinated action

across the entire United Nations system over a 10-year

period to address the unique development needs of the

African continent. It is my hope that coming in the wake

of the Copenhagen Social Summit, it will benefit from

that Summit’s commitments and create the kind of impact

that has long been missing in previous summit

declarations and plans of action.

Africa is a continent with an ancient and rich

history. It is richly endowed with human and natural

resources. I have great hopes for Africa and, being part of

its new leadership, I pledge to work with anyone who

shares my conviction that Africa is positioned for political

and economic renewal, reform and reconstruction for

development. Together, we can realize the dream of a

more peaceful, a more developed and a more respected

continent. Together, we can realize the dream of a world

closer than ever to the ideals set out in the United Nations

Charter over 50 years ago.

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