Zimbabwe, 1999

Mr. President, I wish to express

my warm congratulations to you upon your election to the

presidency of this fifty-fourth session of the United

Nations General Assembly. Your unanimous election to

the presidency is not only an attestation to the confidence

we in Africa have in your leadership ability, but is also

an affirmation of the faith the international community

has in you to steer this organ successfully into the twenty-

first century. You take up the helm of this body at a

critical juncture, when we are here taking stock of where

we stand on the eve of the new millennium.

Let me avail myself of this opportunity to express

our sincere gratitude to your predecessor, His Excellency

Minister Didier Opertti of Uruguay, who presided over

the affairs of this Assembly in a diligent and exemplary

manner. We thank him for his conscientious efforts and

sterling contribution.

May I also express our great appreciation of the

Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, who, having

recognized the great opportunities and challenges ahead

of us, has worked tirelessly to help us map a noble vision

for the future of our Organization.

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We are also witnessing another historic moment for

our Organization, as we admit into our midst three new

members: Nauru, Kiribati and Tonga. We welcome them to

our brotherhood of nations and wish them all the best as

they chart their own destinies and make their contribution

within our community of nations.

On our African continent, the holding of free and fair

elections in Nigeria has ushered in a democratic

dispensation worthy of our attention. This transformation

serves as a monument erected to inform the international

community that Africa has said "No" to the

institutionalization of the route map from barracks to the

State House, which hitherto the military has traversed with

impunity. Further, the return to peace and democracy in

Liberia and Sierra Leone bears ample testimony to Africa’s

renewed quest for democracy, peace and stability. It is,

therefore, our fervent hope that the implementation of these

peace agreements will lead to the restoration of normality

in the region.

In the same spirit, the Southern African Development

Community (SADC) alliance intervened in the Democratic

Republic of the Congo to uphold one of the most

fundamental tenets of the United Nations Charter: respect

for the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Aggression, under whatever pretext, should be condemned

and opposed by the United Nations. We are, therefore,

encouraged by the eventual participation of the rebels in the

peace process.

We wish to register our most sincere gratitude to His

Excellency President Chiluba of Zambia for his untiring

efforts that succeeded in bringing the rebels on board this

peace process. It must be emphasized, though, that the

success or failure of a peacekeeping mission to the

Democratic Republic of the Congo will be determined by

the availability of both human and material resources. We

are, however, worried that an inadequately funded

Democratic Republic of the Congo peacekeeping operation

would be a clear manifestation of Africa’s increasing

marginalization in the new world order. We trust, therefore,

that the United Nations will now render the requisite

support to sustain this achievement.

We find this an opportune moment to call upon the

international community not only to put its full weight

behind African peace initiatives, but also to assess and

buttress the institutional and operational capacity of the

Organization of African Unity (OAU) in the prevention,

management and resolution of conflicts in Africa. In this

vein, we hail the European Union’s declaration that its

future engagement with the belligerents involved in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo conflict would depend

on the latter’s fulfilment of their obligations as spelt out

in the Lusaka ceasefire agreement.

Sadly, the gains that we registered in the Democratic

Republic of the Congo peace process are being negated

by the renewed bloodbath in Angola, where, for the

second time this decade, UNITA has resumed war,

disregarding the 1994 Lusaka Peace Agreement. We

therefore call upon the international community to put in

place effective mechanisms that tighten the embargo

against UNITA, particularly in the light of the recently

concluded mission of Ambassador Robert Fowler,

Chairman of the Security Council sanctions committee on

UNITA.

Zimbabwe hails the acceptance by Eritrea and

Ethiopia of the OAU Framework Agreement to end the

war in the Horn of Africa. Zimbabwe, as a member of the

high-level committee that coordinated the effort to end the

war between the two African States, calls upon the United

Nations to undergird this successful regional peace

initiative with the necessary technical and other resources

to make the process irreversible and permanent.

Since its inception the United Nations has had on its

agenda a concern for economic and social development.

The follow-up to the implementation of the goals of the

World Summit for Social Development is currently being

assessed, and it has become evident that a potentially

explosive social situation confronts the world today. The

soaring levels of unemployment, the deteriorating

standards of living, the abject poverty in most

developing countries, especially on our continent, Africa,

are cause for serious concern.

We note that Africa’s fortunes have continued to

worsen despite the continent’s best efforts. Growth

slowed in the majority of African countries and, at 2.6 per

cent in 1998, average gross domestic product for all of

Africa fell far short of the eight per cent annual growth

rate envisioned by the World Bank as the level capable of

significantly reducing poverty levels on the continent.

Adverse factors that contribute to this decline include

slower growth of the world economy, declining

commodity prices, the contagious effects of the Asian

financial crisis, the El Niño weather pattern, civil strife

and political turmoil in several spots.

At a time when greater challenges and opportunities

are emerging within the context of globalization, it is

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crucial that Africa’s nagging vulnerabilities are highlighted

and addressed. Total African export revenues fell by nearly

$14 billion in 1998, to just $112 billion, an 11 per cent

drop from the 1997 level, mainly due to price declines.

That negative trend has continued in 1999.

We are concerned that at a time when prospects for

aid effectiveness in Africa are improving significantly,

official development assistance to Africa has fallen to its

lowest level. Between 1993 and 1997, total aid receipts in

Africa fell by nearly 13 per cent, from $21 billion to $18.7

billion. At this rate, official development assistance flows

have fallen far short of the $30 billion a year that

economists estimate is needed to reduce poverty in Africa.

The net rate of return on investment in African

countries remains higher than in other developing countries.

It was estimated at 20 to 30 per cent during 1990 to 1994,

on average, as opposed to 16 to 18 per cent for all

developing countries. Yet in contrast to this great potential,

Africa has not been a significant beneficiary of the dramatic

increase in global foreign direct investment flows.

Africa’s debt is essentially non-payable and certainly

unsustainable under any sensible growth-oriented

macroeconomic scenario. There is an urgent need to release

more resources from debt servicing to financing

development and creating conditions that encourage inflows

of private foreign investment. Although the Heavily

Indebted Poor Countries Debt (HIPC) Initiative constitutes

an important mechanism for debt relief, its eligibility

criteria are rather restrictive. While the need for better debt

management by Africa in the future is acknowledged, any

credible solution to Africa’s debt problem must indeed

entail substantial debt cancellation.

We in Africa are therefore fully persuaded that it is

time the international community deliberates on the

substance and prospects for new aid modalities which

emphasize a holistic and comprehensive approach. There is

need for us to share views on how best to foster a new

donor-beneficiary relationship in which multi-donor

programmes focus on supporting an African-driven agenda.

In our own region of southern Africa, we are at an

advanced stage of setting up a trade protocol meant to

maximize our earnings from trade. With a majority of our

members having ratified this protocol, only a couple more

remain before it is operational.

We are also keenly aware of the critical role of

telecommunications as an effective vehicle for successful

international trade. Accordingly, my country only recently

agreed to be a subregional host for the AFRITEL, an

African regional telecommunications centre. We trust that

international investors will see this as positive

preparedness on the part of our continent not only to

attract them and their investments, but indeed to

concretely ensure that they also prosper in their

endeavours on our continent.

The United Nations decade for the progressive

development and codification of international law is

coming to a close on an important note, with the

establishment of the International Criminal Court.

However, the Court can be successful only if it is

universally accepted. We must, therefore, lend our

unwavering support to this process so that we can

complete this important milestone in the history of our

Organization.

As we look into the new millennium, let us aspire to

have an international order that espouses the twin

objectives of universal peace and security on the one

hand, and an improved quality of life for all the earth’s

inhabitants on the other. It must be an order characterized

by justice and respect for international law. Such

international law must surely have the effect of restraining

both regional and international belligerent countries. We

should join enthusiastically in the promotion of the

achievements of the decade for the development of

international law.

Zimbabwe is greatly disturbed at the cataclysmic

turn of events in East Timor following the self-

determination referendum there. The crisis chronicled in

the report of the Security Council Mission to Jakarta and

Dili was most disquieting. Zimbabwe therefore welcomes

the deployment of the multinational force to restore peace

and security in East Timor and to facilitate the delivery of

humanitarian assistance. We sincerely hope that the

Security Council will soon authorize the deployment of a

United Nations peacekeeping force whose financial and

other resource requirements are vouched for by the entire

membership of this Organization.

It would be remiss of me not to mention how

inequitable it is that the membership of the Security

Council should remain unreflective of the vastly altered

international circumstances. The need for the reform of

the Security Council is no longer just a lofty ideal we

strive to achieve, but a prerequisite for the very existence

of this Organization. The Security Council, as a principal

organ of the United Nations, is entrusted to act on behalf

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of the entire membership, which to date has risen to 188

countries. The stark realities of the situation in the world

must be reflected not only in the sheer increase in numbers,

but also in consideration of the democratic principle of

equitable geographical representation and participation.

It is grossly unjust that we, the developing countries,

should remain totally unrepresented in the permanent

membership of a body entrusted with such power and

authority. The powers and privileges that the current

members of the Security Council enjoy should be extended

to all new members if the Council is to be effective.

And so, as we hold the last session of the General

Assembly in the current millennium, it behooves us to

make one giant leap into the future, not only in terms of

wise and bold decisions, but also in terms of the

commitment to implement them and see them bear fruit for

us and for posterity.