Burkina Faso, 1997

Sir, your rich experience in the United Nations

system, your country — Ukraine — your current

responsibilities and your personality assure us of the

competence and dedication with which you will fulfil

your mission as President of the fifty-second session of

the United Nations General Assembly.

We would like to extend our most sincere

congratulations and our gratitude to your predecessor,

Ambassador Ismail Razali of Malaysia, for a full, hard-

working and stimulating fifty-first session. We reiterate

our encouragement and support to the Secretary-General,

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Mr. Kofi Annan. We also wish to commend the work

which he and his team have accomplished in only nine

months.

Last Thursday, 25 September, the Security Council

issued a statement on the situation in Africa, in which it

said:

“The Security Council reaffirms the responsibility of

all Member States to settle their international disputes

by peaceful means and its own primary responsibility

for the maintenance of international peace and security

in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.”

(S/PRST/1997/46)

Burkina Faso shares this vision. Together with other

African countries, it has become involved in subregional

and regional initiatives with regard to our brother countries

of Liberia, the Central African Republic and Burundi, to

name only a few. Burkina Faso, whose confidence has been

strengthened by that experience, reaffirms the inestimable

value of preventive diplomacy. We therefore support any

action designed to achieve that end, and call upon the

United Nations to develop a genuine conflict-prevention

policy. From north to south and from west to east, African

States have been taking action on a continuous basis and in

a variety of ways to deal with armed conflicts, political

instability and internal disorder in our continent.

Africa is daily demonstrating its clear determination to

solve its own problems as a matter of priority by creating,

among other things, a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention,

Management and Resolution. Having made the maximum

regional contribution, therefore, to the resolution of these

problems, it wonders why the Security Council seems not

to be responding. Where does the Security Council’s chief

responsibility lie? The worst thing that could happen to the

Organization would be for Member States to begin to

believe that our common institution has two different

yardsticks. Our statements and appeals would then no

longer be of any value, and our possible actions would be

affected, and weakened.

The purposes enshrined in the United Nations

Charter — peace and security and economic and social

development — can only be attained, consolidated and

maintained by means of justice within nations, justice

among nations and, therefore, justice throughout the world.

The task is enormous. The justice demanded would not

imply the end of the influence of power, but it would

indicate whether such influence was positive or negative.

With regard to disarmament, we must reaffirm the

necessity of working towards the elimination of weapons

of mass destruction, whether nuclear, chemical or

biological.

In Africa, the illicit traffic in small arms has had

new and increasingly uncontrollable consequences,

ranging from an increase in armed criminal acts to the

proliferation of armed refugees. This provokes and adds

to the instability of entire regions. My delegation would

like to know what has become of the follow-up to the

Secretary-General’s initiative under resolution 51/45 L on

assistance to States for curbing the illicit traffic in small

arms and collecting them.

Burkina Faso welcomes the results of the Oslo

conference on anti-personnel landmines, and urges all

States to adhere as quickly as possible to the Convention

adopted in Oslo, and above all to comply with its terms.

Burkina Faso remains concerned by all situations of

turmoil, instability and conflict, from Afghanistan and the

former Yugoslavia to Cambodia.

The illusions harboured after the end of the cold war

are now giving way to a contrasting vision in which the

factors of integration and disintegration in our world are

becoming clearer. In Africa, the tragedy in Somalia has

been followed by tragedies in the Great Lakes region and

the Republic of Congo, while the Democratic Republic of

the Congo is now embarking, with some hesitation, upon

the road towards restoration. In Liberia, elections finally

allowing that country to recover, too, and to contemplate

the colossal task of national reconstruction are taking

place. However, in the neighbouring country of Sierra

Leone constitutional order has been violated and flouted.

Burkina Faso reaffirms its resolute condemnation of

the interruption of the democratic process in Sierra Leone

as well as its adherence to decision 356, on the situation

in Sierra Leone, taken by the Heads of State or

Government of the Organization of African Unity at its

thirty-third summit meeting in Harare.

We welcome the significant advances made in

Angola and urge all the parties, especially UNITA, to

play a constructive role.

In the Middle East, Burkina Faso is concerned about

the repeated setbacks to the peace process and calls on

the parties to ensure that acts of provocation do not create

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a deadly chain of violence that would go against the

interests of the peoples of the region.

The international environment is undergoing a process

of constant change under the combined effect of three

phenomena: globalization of the economy and of threats;

liberalization of markets; and the information and

communications revolution. While we welcome the creation

and consolidation of large economic and monetary

groupings throughout the world, the upheavals created by

globalization and the demands of a triumphant free-market

model illustrate the fragile nature of the successes achieved,

and show more clearly that moderation and justice are the

basic requirements.

Africa, like a patient being cared for on his sick-bed,

has heard and heeded the diagnosis and the suggested

remedies, including programmes, projects, agendas and

special initiatives. This continent, which is engaged in a

constant struggle, is achieving some results that run the risk

of being wiped out by globalization, in that its international

trade is continuing to decrease as a result mainly of outside

factors, further increasing its marginalization.

Developing countries expect the Agenda for

Development, adopted during the fifty-first session of the

General Assembly, to be a catalyst for a new global

partnership for development. The sincerity of the

commitment of each and every one of us will be judged

according to the effectiveness of its implementation. In this

regard, and on all economic and environmental issues, we

support the comments made on behalf of us all by

Tanzania, which holds the presidency of the Group of 77.

Burkina Faso, together with other Member States, has

asked for consideration of the need to review resolution

2758 (XXVI), which excludes from the United Nations the

Republic of China on Taiwan. In doing so, Burkina Faso

has no intention of violating the rights of another Member

State. It merely asks that, given the new context, the reality

of the Republic of China be acknowledged. This reality is

demonstrated by the many and various relations that the

Republic of China has in one form or another with most

States. A review would do justice to the 21.5 million

inhabitants while work goes on to resolve the matter by the

reunification desired by both sides.

While we continue to call for respect for human rights

and respect for freedoms, there is still concern that it has

not yet been possible to implement a position that the

General Assembly has affirmed and reaffirmed, year after

year. The principle of freedom of trade is overtly being

violated, and Cuba, a Member State, is the victim.

Burkina Faso believes that the international community

must continue its efforts to convince all the parties

concerned that since the embargo and obstacles to free

trade have not yet resolved the dispute, new constructive

paths must be explored.

Similarly, along with the current Chairman of the

Organization of African Unity (OAU), Burkina Faso

affirms the need to find a solution to the dispute between

Libya, the United States and the United Kingdom with

regard to the Lockerbie tragedy. As well as the sufferings

of the families of those who perished, many other people

are continuing to suffer from the sanctions imposed

against Libya. The Organization of African Unity has

always expressed its concern at the unremitting sanctions

imposed on Libya and their humanitarian consequences

for its people, and has advocated a fair trial of the

suspects pursuant to accepted principles of justice and

international law. With the OAU, Burkina Faso hopes that

the Security Council will give due attention to the

proposal made jointly by the Organization of African

Unity and the League of Arab States with a view to

finding a just and equitable solution to the crisis.

Speaking of the Security Council, a permanent

member of the Council used the formula that it is far

better to support a proposal for change backed by a large

majority than to support a status quo that enjoys the

support of almost no one. Such reform is now a necessity

with regard to which Africa has developed a common

position. Africa, which was absent in 1945, intends to

gain recognition for its right to a place in the Security

Council, in which most of the matters dealt with are

African. Two permanent seats and some non-permanent

seats would represent the beginning of justice for a

continent which, along with Latin America, has no

permanent representation. Burkina Faso believes that the

enlargement of the Security Council, while including

Japan and Germany, must necessarily provide equitable

representation for Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In addition to the Council’s composition, its

functioning must also be reviewed. The future Security

Council must no longer be a body that behaves all too

often like a club for the privileged; rather, it must behave

like an institution imbued with the highest responsibilities

and aspirations for the benefit of all, without

discrimination. Without that understanding, reform will be

futile.

At the fifty-first session, I concluded by saying:

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“We are now seeing that the State is surrendering

control over certain elements of its sovereignty.

Everywhere, structures and organizations with varying

degrees of legality are transcending States and

establishing transnational networks and relations. It is

therefore imperative that we keep pace with these

trends and adapt now and in the future our special

instrument, our common instrument: the United

Nations at the service of peoples. Political will is what

will make the difference.” [Official Records of the

General Assembly, Fifty-first Session, Plenary

Meetings, 20th meeting, p. 24]

Earlier today, speaking of the globalization of the

economy, I also mentioned the globalization of threats. I

had in mind poverty, environmental deterioration, terrorism,

drug trafficking, pandemics and, in general, the great

disasters caused by man or by nature.

The United Nations is in this regard an irreplaceable

and invaluable tool. We thank and most warmly commend

our brother Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General, who, in the

space of nine months, has produced proposals designed to

keep us all in step with the times and future challenges. In

our quest for peace, security, progress, prosperity and

justice, the Secretary-General is proposing that we define

and redefine the instrument of our solidarity and our

common condition. Burkina Faso will join wholeheartedly

in this exercise and will support any movement that can

lead us to development, which is one of the cardinal points

of our quest and a platform on which all of the United

Nations essential missions can come together: the

maintenance of international peace and security, the

promotion of justice and international law, the strengthening

of cooperation for development, the protection of human

rights and humanitarian assistance.

While we welcome and applaud the generous

contribution a wealthy individual has made to the United

Nations, we must also remind all States that their

contributions are a fulfilment of solemn and voluntary

commitments. Contributions to the budget must be made in

full, on time and without conditions. This is also part of the

needed reform.

The developments we are witnessing are profoundly

contradictory. The future is marked by pairs of opposites —

integration and disintegration; stability and instability;

wealth and poverty; health and incurable disease; the

opening and closing of borders; democracies and

dictatorships; inter alia. They, it is said, are the very stuff

of life.

The pendulum swings from optimism to pessimism

and then back again. To stop it as it swings towards

optimism, we will need, as never before, to see to it that

the international community can find and cultivate the

virtues of inclusion and justice, for otherwise we will see

develop before our eyes, to an increasing degree, a world

of cruel and pitiless violence.

The United Nations is our chance for a world of

hope, justice, peace and progress. Let us seize this

chance.