Angola, 1992

Allow me, first of all, on behalf

of the Angolan Government and on my own behalf, to congratulate you. Sir, on

your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its forty-seventh

session and to wish you success in carrying out your mandate. I am sure that

your experience and competence will guarantee the success of our work. The

Angolan delegation wishes from the outset to assure you of our complete

cooperation.

To the outgoing President, His Excellency Mr. Samir Shihabi, I should

like to express my appreciation for the valuable work done during his mandate.

To Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, I express my Government's

profound appreciation of his goodwill and selfless efforts, demonstrated in

the constant search for just and lasting solutions aimed at preserving peace

and international security.

My Government supports and will contribute in a positive way to the

realization of the valuable concepts formulated in his report "An Agenda for

Peace", whose sub-heading includes the words "Preventive diplomacy" (A/47/277).

On behalf of the Government and people of Angola, I wish to welcome the

new States that have been admitted to the United Nations; we are certain that

their participation will contribute to the Organization's betterment.

The world has witnessed important political transformations occurring in

Angola in the past. The armed conflict that had ravaged the country since

1975 was ended with the signing of the Bicesse Accords on 31 May 1992. There

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is no occasion more appropriate than the present one to sum up the situation

which has followed the peace accords. The Angolan people is preparing for and

awaiting with great expectations the holding of the first multiparty general

elections on 29 and 30 September, which demonstrate my Government's

determination to comply with the obligations it has assumed under the Bicesse

Accords.

While the incidents taking place in my country represent transitional

occurrences in a process as complex as ours, their recurrence in almost all

parts of the country is a source of grave concern to my Government and to the

Angolan people. In this regard my Government believes that the United Nations

and the rest of the international community have an important role to play

during this decisive phase of the Angolan peace process.

The environment of peace and relative tranquillity that prevails in my

country is the result of persistent and arduous work and of the tenacious will

of the Angolan people, which counted upon the international community. The

Angolan people has provided proof of civilian rule and political maturity by

spontaneously and massively participating in electoral registration and in all

the activities which will bring about the elections in spite of the difficulty

in communications.

Of the estimated number of slightly more than 5 million voters,

4.8 million have registered. The national electoral council has demonstrated

foresight and has performed its work with praiseworthy efficiency. And from

this podium, I wish to express once more Angola's appreciation to all those

countries and organizations which lent us their support in so many forms.

My Government sincerely hopes that before the election definitive accords

can be reached on certain aspects which continue to be a source of concern

with regard to the conduct of free and fair elections at the end of this

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month. I am speaking, in particular, of the disbanding of the present

governmental armed forces and the military wing of UNITA, of the cessation of

the wave of violence and intimidation provoked by the Government's

co-signatory to the Bicesse Accords and of the formation of a national army.

The process of peace and democratization under way in my country, to

which I have previously referred as a historic event in the life of Angola,

cannot but have positive repercussions and effects in the international

sphere. Associated with this is another factor of profound significance for

the southern region of our continent. I am referring to the negotiations

being conducted in South Africa within the framework of the Convention for a

Democratic South Africa (CODESA), which Angola considers the most appropriate

means to find a fair, lasting and satisfactory solution for all the parties

involved.

As a result, Angola supports and shares the African position that CODESA

should achieve concrete objectives, such as the establishment of a

transitional government and the creation of mechanisms for elaborating a

constitution for a democratic South Africa and for holding free elections

based on the principle of "one person, one vote".

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I should like also to make reference to the situation in Mozambique and

in other parts of the African continent. The Angolan people stand in

solidarity with our brethren in Mozambique. For that reason, my Government

encourages the Government of Mozambique to persevere in its peace effort for

the country and urges the international community to give its assistance to

the parties involved with a view to achieving peace and national

reconciliation.

Another question that still worries us is the unjust situation that

persists in East Timor. The position of the Angolan Government is well known

by all; we continue to defend the principle of direct negotiations between

Portugal, as the administering Power, and Indonesia, without excluding the

presence of the legitimate representatives of the Maubere people, so that a

comprehensive solution can be found, taking into consideration the aspirations

of the Maubere people. In this context, we express our wish that the next

meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia and Portugal, under

the auspices of the Secretary-General, will produce positive results.

In relation to Western Sahara, my Government supports the holding of a

referendum in that Territory and sincerely hopes that the obstacles that still

exist will be removed as soon as possible.

Angola looks with concern to the situation which prevails in the former

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, where the short-term outlook for

reaching a lasting peace is poor, and where the lives of innocent people are

being taken.

In relation to the Middle East, the Angolan Government has always

favoured holding an international conference to reach a comprehensive solution

on the Middle East, in particular the Palestinian question. Therefore, we

support the rounds of negotiations that are taking place; we hope that

although there are many obstacles to overcome, the concerted efforts and the

good will of the parties will bring positive results and that the tragedy of

the Palestinian people will finally end.

A fact which cannot but bring us satisfaction and which has our total

support and encouragement is the holding of direct negotiations between Israel

and the other parties concerned on the occupied Arab territories. We hope

that those negotiations will yield fully satisfactory results for the parties

participating in the negotiations, and that peace will finally be restored in

the region.

In our view, whatever measure is taken, or whatever solution is advised,

will never be satisfactory or lasting unless it takes into account and is

based upon the true interests and concerns of the peoples involved.

The great changes that have recently taken place in the international

arena have in a certain way dictated the necessity of providing our

Organization with greater dynamism in taking decisions and greater efficiency

in implementing and monitoring them.

The increase in the membership of the Organization, while strengthening

it numerically, has also created the need for greater participation, on an

equitable basis, in the various agencies of the United Nations system which

bear mandates of fundamental importance in resolving the affairs of mankind

with respect to problems of peace, international security, development and

environmental protection.

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We hope that the work under way for the restructuring and revitalization

of the United Nations will take our needs into consideration. Angola

considers such restructuring to be opportune provided it is directed towards

eliminating mechanisms for taking action that are outdated or are no longer

attuned to the present reality, and provided that the restructuring has as its

fundamental objective the strengthening of the role of the Organization to the

benefit of all mankind.

In recent decades the world economic situation has swung widely in

various corners of the planet. But the general trend has been towards

polarization. As a result, while we observe an increase in economic growth

for the developed countries, we note a substantial decrease in growth for

developing countries. The situation in some cases is critical.

The second Conference of the Least Developed Countries, held at Paris in

September 1990, concluded that the economic and social situation of those

countries as a whole has deteriorated over the past decade, since, with very

rare cases of better performance, the average annual growth rate was

2.2 per cent. In many cases the rates were negative.

Faced with this sad reality, the Conference set forth a new programme of

action for the present decade which provides for national and international

measures in favour of these countries and indicates the basic principles which

must orient relations between those countries and other countries and

organizations which cooperate with them for development. In each case,

effective implementation of that programme will require serious and profound

reflection, and commensurate action.

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With the end of the cold war, a new era has begun in which decisions on

matters of world interest are dealt with more and more on the basis of

consultation and understanding, instead of confrontation and competition.

This has rapidly transformed isolated cases of integration into a general

trend, with countries in various regions organizing themselves into more

closely aligned economic and political entities.

This trend towards the formation of larger economic blocs will inevitably

transform the world economically and politically. This poses a challenge for

which we must be duly prepared in order to avoid deepening still further the

gap that separates rich countries from poor countries. It is a challenge with

respect to which all of us, rich countries and poor, large countries and

small, must make a commensurate collective effort to maintain effective,

multifarious international cooperation directed always towards the development

of the parties involved, based always upon the true needs of the development

process.

However, certain political situations are now viewed as faits accomplis.

or as conditions to be perpetuated. These must be the object of immediate and

radical revision, with a view to harmonizing positions and interests, and

weakening wide barriers that impede true cooperation between countries and

nations separated by vast differences in their levels of economic, social,

scientific, technical, cultural and educational development.

In our view, this revision should consist, inter alia, of the following

elements: abolition of protectionist measures by developed countries that

block or impede access to their markets for products from underdeveloped

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countries, or their limitation to those that are strictly necessary; total or

partial cancellation by the developed countries of the underdeveloped

countries' external debt; in the granting of loans or credits, the imposition

of no further conditions with respect to concomitant, mandatory adoption of

political measures that are not always in keeping with the level of

development of the beneficiary country; concessions or an increase in grace

periods, and rescheduling of payment; a reduction of interest rates and the

non-capitalization of interest; favouring of investments in nationally defined

areas, with particular emphasis on industrial development; and transformation

of technology and its application to development.

Those are some of the basic aspects around which the strategy of

international economic cooperation must revolve if we intend, as is our duty,

to eliminate the poverty in which the majority of the inhabitants of our

planet languish. Poverty grows daily, especially in our African continent.

It is worsened by natural calamities that exacerbate the present grave

economic and social situation in Africa.

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Angola is a country with many natural resources. It exports petroleum,

diamonds, coffee and other products, and with the advent of peace we intend to

diversify fully our export products, in this manner participating more

effectively in the division of international labour.

However, we are concerned by the exaggerated protectionist measures

practised by developed countries in international trade, which are manifest in

the unprecedented drop in the prices of raw materials and in the deterioration

of the terms of trade, as well as the lack of success in the General Agreement

on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiation rounds.

As a third world country, and with the objective of correcting the

distortion in its economy, Angola reformulated its socio-political situation

with measures which will necessarily have positive effects on the economic

life of the country and which are consonant with this new situation. We

recently adopted a Government programme of action designed to decentralize the

economy, liberalize trade, revitalize business, democratize the banking sector

and encourage foreign investment.

In this manner, we believe that adequately carrying out this programme in

response to these new conditions will permit us, as is our desire, to

participate actively in international economic cooperative efforts, making our

contribution, to the extent possible, to the socio-economic development of

Africa and the world.

Allow me to express here my country's profound interest in the need to

protect the environment. The Rio Conference, held in June this year, not only

constituted a means for an interesting exchange of experiences and viewpoints

concerning a most important programme but also provided a moment for

reflection on the continuing need for coordinated efforts for the benefit of

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all mankind. Most certainly, the Conference allowed us to see clearly that,

given current trends in scientific and technical development, any brash

misstep detrimental to the environment could lead to the destruction of our

planet.

I wish for this reason to reaffirm here my country's commitment to

observe and fully apply the decisions of the Conference and to express our

readiness to engage in unrestricted cooperation with the international

community in undertaking all necessary steps so that we, together, can save

the Earth.