Botswana, 1998

Mr. President, allow me at the

outset to express great pleasure at seeing you preside over

the work of the fifty-third session of the General Assembly.

We are confident that under your able leadership the work

of this session will be an unmitigated success. I can assure

you of the cooperation and support of my country’s

delegation throughout your stewardship of this session.

Allow me also to pay a well-deserved tribute to our

indefatigable Secretary-General and his staff for the efforts

they are making, often under very trying conditions, to give

meaning and concrete expression to the lofty ideals

enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. They

deserve the full support and cooperation of all Member

States and their peoples.

As we approach the next millennium, we are fully

conscious of the omnipresence of war and of the havoc it

continues to wreak upon peoples in literally every

continent of the world. It is true that local wars have so

far not posed a serious threat to international peace and

security, but by some accounts they have already killed

and maimed more people than both world wars combined.

And judging by the number of those who are killed in

them and other attendant consequences, these wars,

whatever their cause, are a living reality for those who

fight in them and for the innocent people who are caught

in the cross-fire. The conclusion we can draw is that not

all succeeding generations of humankind have been

spared the scourge of war in accordance with the promise

made over 50 years ago by the founding fathers of this

Organization. In terms of human history, 50 years is a

relatively short time. It is, however, long enough to make

the judgement that present-day human beings, like their

predecessors in history, have failed to unlearn the ways of

war — or rather to acquire the skills to live with one

another like good neighbours.

The presence of war and conflict among and within

nations has often drawn a great deal of criticism to the

United Nations, as if it had a magic wand to resolve

every problem brought to its doorstep. True, there is room

for improvement in the performance and efficacy of the

United Nations. Certainly, the genocide in Rwanda in

1994 could have been avoided with more determination

and foresight.

Unfortunately, in awarding themselves certain

extraordinary powers, the framers of the Charter built

certain imperfections into the Organization which have

proven to be serious encumbrances to its efficiency and

effectiveness on conflict resolution. So long as this

Organization remains the creation of the nation-State

system with its in-built self-interest, it cannot be expected

to perform differently. But we can certainly improve its

delivery system to acceptable levels. Notwithstanding the

imperfections of the United Nations, its continued existence

is in the national interest of all Member States, whatever

their claims to the contrary. Otherwise, Member States

which felt they benefitted the least would long since have

withdrawn their membership. Member States should

therefore commit themselves to the payment of their

contributions to the budget of the United Nations when they

fall due, without any conditions.

Ideally, the United Nations should have developed

machinery to address and avert conflict situations before

they actually occur. However, in the world in which we

live, the ideal and the real do not often dovetail. Preventive

diplomacy should quickly be succeeded by robust

peacekeeping as soon as it is determined that a conflict

situation is not amenable to resolution through dialogue.

Preventive deployment has been put to use successfully in

the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the

separation of belligerent forces has also been put to

successful use to contain the otherwise explosive situations

in Cyprus and Lebanon.

The African experience in peacekeeping has been

slightly different. In most cases, conflicts have smouldered

and festered to calamitous proportions on our continent as

a result of international inertia — or should we call it

“Africa fatigue”? Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Great Lakes

region and other cases are illustrative in this regard. African

States are ready and willing to bear their fair share of

peacekeeping operations on the continent, but they are

certainly lacking in logistic and financial wherewithal.

While there is ample scope for improvement in African

peacekeeping capacity, Africa has over the years acquired

practical experience both in the field and through

cooperation with other countries. Thus, Africa has a

relatively sophisticated capacity to carry out peacekeeping

responsibilities.

I must admit that it hurts my pride as an African to

hear that African conflict situations dominate the agenda of

the Security Council. This is a dubious honour, if indeed it

is an honour at all. It must, however, be acknowledged that

African problems are problems of the international

community. They are problems of the United Nations,

whose Charter is categorical in allocating primary

responsibility for the maintenance of international peace

and security. That responsibility was bestowed in trust. It

cannot be shirked for political expediency in any part of

the world. African conflicts deserve equal attention by

this Organization, to which all African States belong and

pay their dues, however modest. They cannot be left to

the Africans alone to resolve.

If I have devoted a great part of my address to the

role of the United Nations in crisis management and in

the defusing of tensions, it is not because I am oblivious

to other equally pressing issues of our times. Crises and

tensions, by their very nature, presuppose a lack of

security, movement of people and, very often, deep-rooted

intolerance. Evidently, when people raise swords against

their neighbours, the humanness that is innate in all

people is replaced by the bestiality that lies latent in every

person. It is incomprehensible how the perpetrators of

acts of genocide and other serious crimes against

humanity manage to live with their consciences or to lead

normal lives after such heinous criminal activities.

The establishment last summer of the International

Criminal Court will, we hope, help to ensure that

perpetrators of acts of genocide, crimes against humanity

and other inhuman acts will not go unpunished. The

International Criminal Court will also, we hope, act as a

deterrent for those intending to commit such serious

crimes. The conviction by the Rwanda Tribunal of two

leading personalities involved in acts of genocide in

Rwanda in 1994 has also served notice to would-be

perpetrators of similar acts that the international

community can no longer tolerate their diabolical acts.

Human rights abuse is equally intolerable and

immoral. Institutions dealing with human rights should be

empowered to deal with the perpetrators of human rights

abuses with the full force of the law. Human rights abuse

has been responsible for the bulk of the horrendous

conflicts that have ravaged societies in all continents

throughout this violent century. We therefore could not

agree more with the Secretary-General when he says in

his annual report on the work of the Organization,

“If individual rights are not protected, the whole of

society suffers. Personal freedoms are however

rendered largely meaningless by civil wars, or by

economic, social or cultural deprivation — often,

indeed, by a combination of all these”. (A/53/1,

para. 171)

2

Therefore, in this, the year of the fiftieth anniversary

of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the

community of civilized nations to which we all belong must

reaffirm its commitment to the human rights ideals

enshrined in the Declaration and to their determination to

live up to those ideals.

Globalization and economic liberalization have brought

about unprecedented expansion in world trade and

commerce, but they have also accentuated the imbalances

in international economic relations. The vast majority of

countries, particularly in Africa, continue to face

marginalization in the world economy. The problem is

further compounded by the fact that official development

assistance has fallen to unprecedentedly low levels.

In Africa, armed conflicts have impacted negatively on

development prospects. Corruption has also been one of the

biggest obstacles to development. There is, however, reason

for optimism. The majority of African countries have

instituted reforms to achieve economic growth and

development, including the application of sound

macroeconomic policies, good governance, the rule of law

and respect for human rights. They have taken serious

measures to introduce budgetary reforms, remove

restrictions on current payments and restrain credit and

monetary expansion. Over the past few years Africa’s

economic performance has been on an upward trend. In

1997 close to 60 per cent of the African countries

registered growth rates in excess of their population growth

rates, and about half of this number posted annual

economic growth rates of more than 5 per cent.

Africa, however, still needs active support and

assistance from the international community. We clearly

recognize that it is the primary responsibility of the

Africans themselves to reduce the marginalization of their

continent from the world economy. But for Africa to

achieve any tangible success and emerge from the

conditions of poverty and underdevelopment a new type of

partnership with the developed world is required to increase

trade and the continent’s share of global prosperity. African

countries need improved access to world markets, greater

flow of foreign direct investment, technology transfer and

an increase in official development assistance.

The decline in official development assistance needs

to be reversed. Similarly, external debt is a problem

requiring urgent attention. In fact, the debt burden continues

to be one of the main obstacles to economic growth and

development. The new initiative adopted by the Bretton

Woods institutions to reduce the multilateral debt of the

heavily indebted poor countries is a welcome

development, though its implementation has been very

disappointing and painfully slow. Botswana believes that

the only viable solution to the debt problem faced by the

poorest countries is outright cancellation of the debt.

The main objectives of Botswana’s development

strategy are employment creation and poverty alleviation.

Lack of income is the most immediate cause of poverty

among our people. Employment opportunities have

increased significantly in the last few years, but the rate

of unemployment is still unacceptably high. To improve

the situation, Botswana has over the past few years

undertaken measures to create a favourable environment

for investment, including the encouragement of small and

medium-scale enterprises. I am confident that with the

support of our development partners our efforts will bear

fruit.

Before I conclude my statement, let me say a few

words about recent events in southern Africa. On 16

September 1998 there was an attempt to put an end to the

constitutional order in the Kingdom of Lesotho by

overthrowing a democratically elected Government. Junior

officers in the Lesotho Defence Force mutinied and

arrested their senior officers, including the army

commander. Government employees, including Cabinet

Ministers, were stopped from going to work, which

resulted in a complete collapse of the administrative order

in the country. Criminal activity and lawlessness became

the order of the day. There was no doubt that Lesotho

was on the brink of widespread violence and total chaos.

The crisis was most alarming because of its wider

implications for peace and stability in the whole

subregion of southern Africa. No effort was made by

those involved to heed the calls for peaceful dialogue.

Under the circumstances, the Southern African

Development Community (SADC) could not remain

indifferent. Therefore, on 21 September 1998 members of

the Botswana Defence Force and the South African

Defence Forces entered the Kingdom of Lesotho in

response to an appeal for such intervention by the

democratically elected Government of Lesotho. The

intervention is aimed at assisting the people of Lesotho to

create conditions conducive for them to address their

differences in a peaceful manner. Our action conforms

strictly to the purposes and principles of the Charter of

the United Nations, as well as the resolution of the 1997

Harare summit of the Organization of African Unity

which condemns the overthrow of legitimate Governments

by the military.

3

I wish to assure the Assembly that the military

intervention by Botswana and South Africa in Lesotho is

motivated solely by a sincere will to establish conditions of

peace and security in our sister country. We are dealing

with a difficult, complex and rapidly changing situation. As

such, our forces shall remain in Lesotho for as long as

necessary to restore public order and the rule of law.

With regard to Angola, it has become increasingly

clear that the leader of UNITA has no intention that it shall

meet its obligations under the Lusaka Protocol. Given the

renewed upsurge in violence caused by UNITA, SADC has

come to the conclusion, regretfully, that Mr. Savimbi must

be held personally responsible for war crimes that his

movement has committed, and continues to commit even

after it has signed a peace agreement. The people of Angola

have suffered for far too long and it is time that this

fratricidal war, which has devastated the country, was

brought to an end.

Across the border from war-weary Angola, another

SADC country is going through a painful process of

national rebirth, rudely interrupted two months ago by a

rebellion which, even as we meet here, is ineluctably

sapping the residual energy of a devastated country. The

people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo deserve a

break. Through the timely assistance rendered by three

SADC countries at a time of great peril, it is our fervent

hope that the Democratic Republic of the Congo will soon

resume its process of rebirth and do so in peace and

tranquillity.

Let me conclude by assuring you, Mr. President, and

the nations gathered here that Botswana’s faith in the

United Nations as the universal repository of the hopes and

aspirations of all mankind remains as strong as ever. We

will continue to work assiduously for the enhancement of

the efficacy of the Organization, to help equip it for the

arduous tasks that lie ahead.