Algeria, 1995

Allow me first to say how pleased we are to see

Ambassador Freitas do Amaral of Portugal presiding over

this session of the General Assembly, a session that

coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the United

Nations. His election to the presidency is a tribute that

expresses recognition of his personal qualities. We

welcome this unanimous election of a high-ranking

representative of the friendly country, Portugal, whose

skills and experience we value. I should like to assure

him of the support and cooperation of Algeria.

I should also like to express Algeria’s gratitude to

his predecessor, Mr. Amara Essy, Minister for Foreign

Affairs of the Côte d’Ivoire for his outstanding efforts and

achievements throughout his mandate.We are very

grateful to him for the manner in which he has honoured

Africa and wish him every success in his work in the

service of his country.

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I should also like to say how grateful we are to the

Secretary-General of the Organization, Mr. Boutros

Boutros-Ghali, and how much we appreciate his sagacity

and resolve at a time when the role of the Organization

vis-à-vis the call for peace, security and development, is

becoming more urgent. I wish to renew to him assurances

of our full confidence and continuing support.

This session of the General Assembly is truly

exceptional in that it takes place at a time when the

international community is at a historic turning-point. Never

before has there been such a need for stability and security,

nor has there been a more pressing quest for a fairer, more

equitable and balanced world. Herein lies the symbiotic

significance of this fiftieth session of the General

Assembly. It comes as a timely reminder of the importance

of world peace and security and of the need for our nations

to organize their common future on new foundations.

Thus, when we take stock of the Organization’s

activities over the past 50 years in all areas of international

life, the transformations and shortcomings such stocktaking

reveals make it incumbent upon us to make a special effort

to identify the stakes and the challenges we must face up to

as the century draws towards its end.

How our world shapes up will depend on our doing

so. Therefore, the ambition of the world Organization

should be to give true content to collective security and to

promote the creation of a new paradigm for development.

The United Nations must adapt to a changing and

singularly complex world reality by going back to the

source, to the principles upon which it was founded if it is

to forge a new future for all.

At a time when the international order has lost its

regulatory capability and the international community lacks

the frames of reference that could help guide its action, it

is up to the United Nations to regulate inter-State relations,

to promote a stable and equitable order and to foster a

model that would be acceptable to all.

At a time when it is becoming clear that trade

globalization and market integration respond only partially

to the growing need for justice, equity, stability and

security, the United Nations must take its position at the

forefront of the drive towards harmonization which is a

must for conflict prevention, crisis management,

rapprochement between peoples and the promotion of

cooperation between States.

However, if the Organization is to perform its role,

it must be given the means that would enable it to better

organize international society and equip it to face up to

the upsurge of intolerance, the escalation of terrorism, the

exacerbation of tensions and conflicts, the aggravation of

the economic situation of the most deprived countries, the

social malaise in the industrialized countries and an

overall decline. In short, the United Nations must be

equipped with the means that would enable it to defend

freedom, law, justice and equity.

This means that nothing could be done in the

absence of the political will of States that bear the

responsibility of dispelling doubts and remedying the

disaffection that is noticeable today vis-à-vis the United

Nations by giving true meaning to the Organization’s

invaluable and multifarious contributions towards the

promotion of an international society that is more just,

better organized and better structured.

Whether it is a matter of democratizing international

relations, completing the process of decolonization,

upholding human rights, strengthening the disarmament

enterprise or ensuring the continuity of international

efforts to promote development, the contributions of

States and their awareness of their responsibilities remain

indispensable if the United Nations is to be able to

perform the ever-developing role it has to play in this

context.

Proceeding from this, it is only by improving the

collective capabilities of the international community to

face up to the urgent and most intolerable injustices that

a true meaning could be given to preventive efforts of

diplomacy, to peace-keeping operations and to the

elaboration of a genuine structure of international

cooperation.

It is only with a new vision, a new thinking and new

modalities of action that the international community

would be able to surmount obstacles and ensure future

success.

As we approach the end of the century, it is

important to rethink our practices with a view to

elaborating long-term complementarities that would rise

up to future challenges, spare the world new crises and

establish the regulatory rules our world needs.

It is this vision that inspires Algeria in its thinking

of the need for international action that should be made

more palpable in order to ensure greater consultation

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among nations, and greater understanding among peoples as

well as greater courage in striving to achieve peace and

development.

It is this vision that guides Algeria’s national renewal

endeavour which aims at establishing on firm foundations

the rule of law, promoting economic reform and

strengthening the democratic process.

The democratic presidential elections, the first round

of which will take place on 16 November 1995, will

translate into actual political reality, the will and desire to

promote the sense of responsibility of all Algerians and to

hasten the laying of firm foundations for an open, free and

democratic society.

This democratic process, an ever-renewed experiment,

is bound to contribute to the achievement of stability, the

concretization of democratic freedoms and development in

our region, and, as it truly expresses the aspirations of our

peoples, it will be the appropriate retort to all attempts at

subversion, of which terrorism is the most abhorrent

manifestation. To us, combating terrorism is a battle in

defence of democracy. As any complacency vis-à-vis

terrorism would be an absolute negation of democracy, it

follows that we cannot remain indifferent to this scourge

which poses a really serious threat to international peace

and security. Thus, the struggle against terrorism does not

allow of any laxity but must be pursued most vigorously in

the context of decisive international action whose aim

should be the total eradication of this scourge from all our

societies.

If we are to rise up to this challenge, there is a need

to accord a high priority to economic and social

development. This is a need that is more urgent than ever

before. Its relevance has been recognized today by all the

Governments of one region. Awareness of the threat of the

scourge of terrorism and the interest shown in the Algerian

proposal regarding the need for a response in solidarity

within the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean region

demonstrate fully the strength of this conviction.

In the context of the newly emerging political,

economic and social realities, Algeria has accorded special

priority in the context of its immediate environment, to the

problems of security and development and to the sort of

contributions required in resolving such problems.

Proceeding from this, Algeria is convinced that the

unitary Maghreb project is necessary, not only for the

security and stability of the Maghreb region, but also for

the prosperity of the Euro-Mediterranean region, as well

as the Arab and African regions.

It is precisely within the context of the need to

establish a unified, strong and stable Maghreb region that

Algeria makes its contribution towards the achievement of

a just and lasting settlement to the question of Western

Sahara. Part and parcel of this policy is Algeria’s support

of the efforts of the United Nations Secretary-General

aimed at a transparent and credible implementation of the

settlement plan through a genuine referendum, which

would ensure the free exercise by the people of the

Western Sahara of its right to self-determination and

independence.

Any violation of the settlement plan, especially

through the moving foreign populations to the Western

Sahara, would have very serious consequences for the

peace process. All obstacles that impede the

implementation of the settlement plan should be dealt

with through direct dialogue between the two parties to

the conflict, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario

Front, with the aim of creating the proper conditions for

a peaceful settlement to the conflict that would realize the

aspirations of the peoples of the region. A just and lasting

settlement to the question of the Western Sahara would

contribute to the strengthening of the Maghreb unitary

edifice, thus making it a fundamental element of success

for medium- and long-term cooperative strategies in both

the Sahelian-Saharan and Mediterranean regions.

In this connection, to lift the sanctions which

continue to severely afflict the brotherly Libyan people

and to search for urgent solutions to the relevant

differences, is an urgent need that acquires particular

significance and should make part of any forward-looking

strategy. Here, as elsewhere, political will underscores the

need for an intelligent understanding of the situation and

for a positive dialectic that would contribute to the

building of a community of stability and progress. It is in

this spirit that we continue to deploy efforts that aim at

consolidating cooperation in the sahelian-Saharan region,

an enterprise which we shall endeavour to pursue to

success at the forthcoming Euro-Mediterranean conference

in Barcelona.

In the Middle East, where the building of peace

requires from all parties sincerity, determination and

respect for the commitments undertaken, Algeria

continues to make its contribution towards the

establishment of a lasting peace based on a just and

overall settlement consistent with the rights of all the

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region’s peoples. That is why, while supporting the peace

process, Algeria has continuously underscored the need for

withdrawal by Israel from all Arab territories occupied

since 1967, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif and respect for the

national inspirations of the Palestinian people. In this

context, Algeria welcomes the conclusion of the agreement

on the extension of Palestinian national autonomy in the

west bank of the Jordan as a new positive step and calls for

its translation into concrete reality.

The search for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace

in the Middle East calls for full awareness of the fact that

the challenges which face the peoples of the region require

more wide-ranging and more efficacious solutions. From

this standpoint, since Iraq is fulfilling its commitments

which arise from the Security Council resolutions, the

sanctions which severely afflict the people of this country

should be lifted.

By the same token, Kuwait’s internationally

recognized borders must be fully respected. Finally, the

restoration of the sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates

over the islands of Abou-Moussa, greater Tumb, and lesser

Tumb must be reaffirmed. By meeting these conditions,

new prospects for stability and security in the region can

emerge.

The alarming situation in Africa, where instability and

uncertainty are symptomatic of a protracted crisis and

where the fundamental elements of a new solution are

being sought against a backdrop of disorder, the hotbeds of

tension that persist in Angola, Liberia, Burundi, Rwanda

and Somalia must now be quenched. However, any return

to stability will only take place through economic recovery

and escape from the economy of indebtedness that has

severely damaged social cohesion, to a new type of

economic organization that would foster growth and

guarantee the modalities of international integration.

As of necessity, this calls for dealing, as a matter of

urgency, with the social costs of structural adjustment and

implementing the new United Nations programme for

Africa in order to avoid the tragedies and sufferings that

beset the peoples of Africa and to put an end to the

marginalization of the African continent. This is the price-

tag on stability and peace in Africa and security in the

world.

We are equally concerned at the latest developments

in Bosnia and Herzegovina where an entire people, whose

very survival is threatened, face hatred, exclusion and the

insanity of ethnic cleansing. It is no longer possible to

tolerate this savage onslaught on the conscience of

humanity. It is the international community’s duty and

responsibility to put an end to this situation which is

politically unacceptable and morally intolerable. From this

rostrum, I would like to reiterate Algeria’s solidarity with

and support for Bosnia and Herzegovina in exercising its

right to defend its unity and territorial integrity and to

protect the dignity and values of its citizens. In this spirit,

Algeria has supported the current peace initiatives aimed

at a just and lasting solution that would ensure respect for

the constitutional principles that the people of Bosnia and

Herzegovina wish freely to choose.

In addition to these concerns, Algeria has

commitments relating to peace throughout the world, as

entered into in the framework of United Nations peace-

keeping operations in Angola, Cambodia and Haiti, and

participation in the election monitoring process that led to

the birth of the new South Africa.

All this reflects Algeria’s posture and its

commitment to the maintenance of international peace and

security. This is reflected in the comprehensive and

coherent policy Algeria has always pursued with regard

to disarmament issues, a policy that has led to its

accession to the major disarmament instruments. Its recent

accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of

Nuclear Weapons (NPT), its effective contribution to the

promotion of consensus solutions in the negotiations on

the Treaty’s extension, and ratification, several weeks ago

of the Chemical Weapons Convention, are significant

moves that reflect Algeria’s desire to play an active role

in achieving general and complete disarmament.

The need for a viable international order based on

solidarity has never been as urgent as it is now at a time

when the world is in the throes of a phase of systematic

transition.

If it acknowledges how far we are interdependent,

the international community will be able to usher in an

orderly world society of solidarity that respects the

diversity it enjoys.

That is the reason why we must reduce the widening

gap between North and South that, in the long term, are

anathema to both international peace and security, and put

our minds to the establishment of new balances based on

renewed international relations. Such relations, if they are

based on consultation and openness to the solidarity

interests of the international community, will promote

credible solutions to development problems. They must

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validate the efforts of developing countries to regulate

domestic adjustment processes, restore social balances and

ensure all the conditions for meaningful integration into the

new international order.

In the face of rapid changes that threaten social fabric

across the board, it is essential to promote a stable,

predictable international economic environment that would

be conducive to development efforts. In this context, more

equitable financial, monetary, trading and technological

relations must provide the basis for re-establishing trade as

an effective instrument for mutual development, for

reconciling peoples and strengthening the international

community.

In the face of these challenges, the United Nations,

with its experience and credibility in terms of global issues,

can provide inspiration, encouragement and help to

elaborate and follow up future strategies. It is therefore our

duty and responsibility to ensure that the United Nations

Organization reasserts its authority, makes its structures

more democratic and rationalizes its working methods.

Such an endeavour should be founded on the

reaffirmation of Member States’ commitments to the kind

of renewal that is based on and inspired by the principles

of the Charter of the United Nations.

This means that any restructuring of the United

Nations system must meet the requirements of true

democracy in international relations and should focus on the

revitalization of its bodies, improving coordination between

them, rehabilitating the General Assembly and ensuring

transparency in reforming the Security Council. Whether it

is a matter of establishing order among the essential

elements of action or global decision-making, the

prerequisite of democracy is now at the very heart of the

problems of peace and development. In this context, “An

Agenda for Peace” and “An Agenda for Development” are

of the utmost importance.

Thus, if we look clearly at the international situation

and what is really at stake, this adaptation process will lead

to new hope for humanity and ensure a lasting foothold in

history for international peace and security.