Algeria, 2000

I

should like first of all, on my own behalf and that of

the Algerian delegation, to convey to Mr. Holkeri

heartfelt congratulations on his election to the

presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth

session. I wish him every success in discharging his

noble duties. The choice of Mr. Holkeri as President is

a tribute to his personal qualities and to the experience

of his country, Finland, with which we enjoy a firm

friendship.

I should also like to take this opportunity to

convey to his predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, the

Foreign Minister of Namibia, our deep appreciation

and gratitude for the great effort he made during his

presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth

session.

Finally, I should like to salute the spirit of

initiative and commitment shown by our Secretary-

General, Mr. Kofi Annan, the head of the Secretariat,

and commend his sincere and tireless work to reform

the Organization and to give it a new dynamism so as

to prepare it to meet the challenge of the enormous

changes in international relations.

I should also like to welcome the State of Tuvalu

as a new Member of our Organization.

Just a few days ago, the United Nations hosted a

political event that was without precedent since the

Organization was created: the Millennium Summit.

Because of a host of fast-paced developments that

occurred in international relations, we, the peoples of

the United Nations, must take time at this juncture of

history to organize a dialogue to discuss the shape of

the new emerging world order and the effects on us, the

peoples, the States and the United Nations, the

repository of our collective hopes and aspirations.

The world has changed in a very short time from

a system with clearly defined parameters to a system

where political and economic reference points are

sorely lacking. It is a system defined by nebulous

phenomena, which evolve according to rules set by

forces that refuse, in the name of globalization, to

accept any form of guidance or collective democratic

oversight. It is no surprise that globalization is

increasing the suspicions and fears of the developing

countries vis-à-vis the evolving new world order. The

current state of international relations, marked by

injustice and imbalance, will inevitably get worse

because of the unbridled process of globalization.

It is because of this that the Millennium Summit

forcefully proclaimed the need to reinvigorate the

United Nations and to galvanize its role, since it is the

18

refuge of the weak and the marginalized. The massive

presence of the leaders of the whole world at the

Summit was irrefutable proof of the commitment of the

peoples and nations of the world to the United Nations

and to the principles and purposes it embodies. The

United Nations is the only forum built on the ideals and

reference points shared by mankind as a whole, marked

by universality and globality in its missions and

prerogatives.

Certainly the United Nations is facing today new

challenges caused by rapid, profound and sometimes

surprising changes in international affairs. No one

denies the fact that it needs to be radically reformed in

order to prepare it and adapt it effectively to meet

current and future challenges and to manage and

redress the contradictions of international relations.

Security Council reform and expansion of its

membership are urgent matters, because this important

body clearly lacks the necessary representativity to

give legitimacy and efficiency to its decisions and

actions.

Likewise, consolidation of democracy and

international relations, if it is to be truly meaningful,

must involve the enhancement of the General

Assembly and the establishment of its role as the

principal source of international law, as well as

oversight over the three principal organs, in keeping

with the United Nations Charter. Accordingly,

marginalization of the Assembly, when it comes to

major questions such as the maintenance of

international peace and security, does not in any way

allow the overwhelming majority of nations to

contribute to the decision-making process in

international affairs.

Opening the United Nations to the outside world

is a necessity dictated by changes in the international

community and the demands of our times. By involving

civil society in its work, the United Nations will

benefit from the considerable contribution that non-

governmental partners can provide in meeting the

needs of countries in matters of development,

particularly in the areas of education, health and

housing. But this partnership cannot be at the expense

of the purposes and principles of the United Nations,

nor the independence of its decisions.

It is in the context of this vision that we state our

position on humanitarian intervention. For us it is a

question not of whether or not it is acceptable to

intervene in humanitarian disasters, but, rather, of legal

and political parameters that should govern any

decision on this matter. We therefore demand that

terms of reference be clearly and precisely established,

that they should be democratically adopted in a context

of transparency and that they should effectively reflect

the will of the community of nations. They must be

based on principles of solidarity and justice, ruling out

any forms of selectivity, special treatment or double

standards.

Experience has shown that the international

community has found in the United Nations a

framework that allows for considerable progress to be

made with regard to security and cooperation. In the

area of disarmament, for example, thanks to the

available frameworks for negotiation and dialogue, the

Organization has been able to realize considerable

achievements, such as the signing of many conventions

on weapons of mass destruction and the success of the

2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on

the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),

presided over by Algeria.

The United Nations has also provided a

framework to coordinate international efforts to deal

with new dangers that pose a threat to international

peace and security, such as terrorism, organized crime,

and drug and arms trafficking. On the subject of

terrorism, the international community has embarked

on a process of implementing its strategy to combat

this scourge and to prevent it. The United Nations and

regional groups have adopted legal instruments that

supplement international laws dealing with anti-

terrorist actions. We hope that these achievements will

be enhanced by the adoption of a comprehensive

international convention, to be considered a political,

legal and moral international covenant, to combat

terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

Algeria is keen that its relations within its

political and geographical spheres be governed by a

vision of the future that goes beyond short-term

interactions or ephemeral motives. In our policy

towards the peoples and countries with which we have

relations of neighbourliness, geography and common

heritage, we want to consolidate the principle of

dialogue and consultation and develop cooperation and

solidarity in keeping with the demands of good

neighbourliness, common destiny, mutual interest,

mutual trust and non-interference in the internal affairs

of States.

19

Regarding the Arab Maghreb region, Algeria's

commitment to build a unified, stable and prosperous

Maghreb is based on our conviction that Maghreb unity

is a strategic option dictated by the aspirations of the

peoples of the region and by the current international

situation, which encourages integration and the

formation of blocs. Algeria is prepared today to work

with its Maghreb partners to reactivate the process on

the basis of an objective thorough analysis of common

Maghreb action according to a rigorous and pragmatic

methodology that seeks to maximize the

complementarities of the countries of the region and

that ensures gradual integration, taking into account the

principles of equity and balance of interests.

It is on the basis of this vision that Algeria has

spared no effort to help find a just and lasting solution

to the problem of Western Sahara. Algeria's support for

the United Nations settlement plan is based on our

commitment to preserve the security and stability of

the region, without, however, rejecting the principle of

the right of peoples to self-determination. The

settlement plan, which was supported by both sides —

Morocco and the POLISARIO Front — and by the

international community, remains the practical,

realistic option that will guarantee a just and lasting

solution to this issue. Today the settlement plan is at a

delicate stage, and the international community, which

has already made a considerable effort to implement it,

must give it even more attention and more support.

Thanks to the efforts of the Secretary-General and his

Personal Envoy, Mr. James Baker, and the cooperation

of both sides, the United Nations Mission for the

Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has

resolved the difficulties that for so long prevented

implementation of the plan. Today, there is no reason to

delay or to block the referendum process.

My country is convinced of the interdependence

of the interests of the States and peoples on both shores

of the Mediterranean Sea. We therefore reaffirm our

commitment to the Euro-Mediterranean process, which

provides a promising framework for the promotion of

dialogue and consultation among the countries of the

region and opens up great prospects for understanding,

intercultural exchange and improvement of partnership

for the benefit of all peoples.

The Middle East region has seen some

developments this year that have had an important

impact on the peace process. The question of Palestine,

which is at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, is at a

delicate stage. That means that the international

community must mobilize even further in order to

move the peace talks forward. Algeria reiterates its

support for the Palestinian people and salutes their

struggle for recovering their legitimate rights,

including the right to establish their own independent

State with Al-Quds as its capital.

Algeria would also like to reaffirm its support for

the fraternal Syrian people and its right to recover the

occupied Golan.

We express our profound satisfaction and pride at

Lebanon's regaining its sovereignty over all its

territory.

Algeria once again reaffirms the need to lift the

embargo that has hit the fraternal Iraqi people so hard.

We also call for a final lifting of the sanctions

that continue to penalize the fraternal peoples of Libya

and the Sudan.

Africa is undergoing profound changes that are

opening up new vistas for the peoples and countries of

that continent. Those changes have been brought about

by the serious and determined will of Africans to free

themselves from the burdens of the past and by their

aspiration to join in the process of change that is

sweeping our world today. Democracy is gaining

ground daily as the mode of governance for the vast

majority of societies in Africa. The State of law and

respect for human rights are becoming embedded in

African societies. That tendency is strikingly reflected

in the historic decision by the 1999 Organization of

African Unity (OAU) Assembly of Heads of State and

Government no longer to recognize any anti-

constitutional changes. That was a promising sign for

the establishment of a democratic culture in Africa.

At the economic level, African countries have

wasted no time in joining the world trend towards a

market economy and in creating the necessary

conditions to promote free trade and investment.

With regard to the conflicts that have devastated

the continent and continue to cause humanitarian

disasters and to tarnish Africa's prestige, the

continent's leaders are now using preventive diplomacy

and their own skills in mediating and settling conflict.

Along the same lines, the OAU's Mechanism for

Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution is

being reinforced as the authority of reference to

provide a framework for dialogue and conflict

20

prevention. As a result of those efforts, we see signs of

easing in various conflicts in some parts of Africa.

Through its chairmanship of the OAU last year, my

country made great efforts to resolve some of those

conflicts and to limit their scale.

Algeria's efforts were successful in the case of

the conflict between two neighbours, Ethiopia and

Eritrea, where the Algiers Agreement on Cessation of

Hostilities doused the fire of that destructive war

between two fraternal peoples. The Agreement now

offers real prospects for a just and lasting settlement of

the border dispute between the two countries.

Algeria has also stepped up its initiatives to end

the conflict in the sisterly nation of the Democratic

Republic of the Congo. In coordination and

consultation with the countries of the region concerned

and with the United Nations, President Abdelaziz

Bouteflika has intensified his efforts with the parties,

urging them to find a peaceful and negotiated solution

in order to spare the peoples of that country any further

suffering and preserve its unity and territorial integrity.

Today, more than a year since the Lusaka Agreement,

we can only view with regret the reversals that have

taken place in the peace process in the Democratic

Republic of the Congo. Those setbacks have led to a

deferment by the United Nations of the deployment of

its peacekeeping mission.

UNITA's continued defiance of the international

community in Angola and its failure to comply with the

commitments it made in the peace process continue to

inflict the disastrous consequences of an endless war

on the people of Angola. While reaffirming UNITA's

responsibility for the ongoing war in that country, we

note with satisfaction the new effectiveness of

sanctions on that rebel group. We reiterate the need for

complete compliance by any means necessary to make

the rebel elements comply with international law and

honour their commitments under the Lusaka

Agreement.

The solidarity expressed by the international

community for the efforts of the leaders of Sierra

Leone to restore peace and security must be

accompanied by a tough attitude towards the criminal

elements guilty of murder and despicable acts against

civilians. Those acts have not spared even members of

the United Nations Mission.

While we reaffirm the fundamental role of the

United Nations and the Security Council in the

maintenance of international peace and security, we

continue to stress the need for the Security Council to

demonstrate the same effectiveness and speed of action

with regard to conflicts in Africa as it does in

connection with conflicts in other regions of the world.

In that regard, I would like to express our desire that

the General Assembly give the necessary attention and

in-depth consideration to the Brahimi report's

recommendations on peacekeeping operations, and that

it implement those recommendations so as to make the

United Nations more effective in this essential area of

maintaining international peace and security.

The contrasts that exist in today's world can be

seen very clearly in the economic and social situation

of the world. Humanity has never before achieved such

a level of technological development. That

development now makes it possible to meet basic

human needs economically, socially and culturally.

However, some segments of humanity continue to

suffer the most abject forms of poverty and destitution.

The Secretary-General's report to the Millennium

Summit contains a clear formulation of those

contradictions, which do us no credit as a civilized

society that aspires to preserve human dignity and to

protect the rights of those whose rights have been

wrested from them.

Mr. Kofi Annan also recognized in his report that

the benefits of globalization remain limited to a small

group of people. That fact reinforces our conviction of

the need to accelerate the restructuring of international

relations and our insistence on the need for a serious

and comprehensive dialogue between the North and the

South to find solutions for the imbalances that exist in

the international financial and trade systems.

It is time to tackle international economic

relations from the standpoint of humankind's needs and

dignity rather than from the standpoint of market forces

alone, because experience has proved that such forces

do not accord the necessary importance to social

issues. If there is one area in which we must translate

into reality the values of solidarity upon which the

United Nations was founded and the interdependence

which marks international relations, it is that of

combating poverty, ignorance and epidemics.

Effective and unified tackling of the problem of

sustainable development in the third world necessarily

entails settling the problem of debt, reviving

cooperation for development, promoting investments

21

and opening up the markets of the North to the

products and commodities of the South.

We are meeting today for the last session of the

General Assembly in our century, which has been

marked by many events, a century in which the horror

of destructive wars was mingled with the joy of peace

and détente, a century marked by a struggle between

hope and resignation, where it became evident that

people are at once capable of the most abject acts and

the most useful kinds of actions.

We leave behind a century and usher in another,

hopeful that humankind will learn from the past and

will demonstrate the necessary determination to avoid

making the same mistakes, for which we have paid

such a high price.