Central African Republic, 1995

Just last June we celebrated the fiftieth

anniversary of the signing of the San Francisco Charter,

which to this day still governs our Organization. On that

occasion, all Member States were able to take stock of

the road we have travelled in 50 years of endeavouring to

transform our planet Earth into one enamoured of peace,

freedom and justice.

Not so long ago from this rostrum, through

Mr. Ange-Félix Patassé, President of the Central African

Republic, my country pondered the scope and significance

of the important events that are continually shaking the

world and touching the conscience of one and all.

My country, at that time, looked forward to a new

era of peace and security such as once existed in the

Garden of Eden, and we welcomed the idea of fair and

fruitful cooperation, especially for the benefit of the least

developed countries such as the Central African Republic.

But what do we see today?

It is a tradition for the United Nations to meet in the

General Assembly to reflect on the way in which it

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intends to assume its responsibilities in guiding the fate of

mankind, but there can be no doubt that this collective

endeavour can only be pursued in the light of the objectives

we have set — that is to say, international security and

sustainable development. And so, this session, more than

any other, is of special importance for my country, the

Central African Republic, because our universal

Organization will need to ask itself whether it has fully

achieved its goals.

I am therefore very pleased to convey to the Assembly

the best wishes of His Excellency, the President of the

Central African Republic, Ange-Félix Patassé, the Head of

State, for complete success. Together with all of the Central

African people, he places deep confidence and unshakable

faith in the future of our Organization. I feel certain that the

great personal abilities of Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral will

enable us to look forward to the complete success of our

work. To Mr. Amara Essy, the outgoing President, I wish

to convey my sincere congratulations for the dynamism,

competence and effectiveness with which he so brilliantly

conducted the work of the last session of the General

Assembly, thereby doing credit to all of Africa. Allow me

also to express again my sincere congratulations to the

Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for the

outstanding competence, constant dedication and unmatched

efficiency with which he is directing the work of our

Organization.

Since the end of the cold war, all nations have rightly

looked forward to an international environment that is more

conducive to cooperation and dialogue than to confrontation

as was the case in the past. The tireless efforts of the

international community to achieve this have been most

praiseworthy despite the difficulties encountered in some

cases in achieving peace and security, which are

indispensable in the economic, social and cultural

development of nations.

In this regard, we should therefore, once again,

express thanks to the international community, which took

part in the emergence of a true democracy in the Central

African Republic, a democracy whose day-to-day practice

is acknowledged beyond its own borders. Strengthened by

that achievement, my country is practising a policy of

preventive diplomacy and development and has just

completed the first phase of this change, notably through

the restoration of public confidence and establishing

democratic institutions, re-establishing fiscal health and

control, health measures, training and education and by the

adoption and promulgation, on 14 January 1995, of a new

and truly democratic constitution. The Constitution, which

was adopted by an overwhelming majority, introduces a

policy of decentralization, with its corollary of

regionalization aimed at involving the population in the

tasks of development and at mobilizing all local resources

for the enhancement of the standard of living of the rural

masses.

The second phase of the programme pertains to other

major challenges such as the regional development, the

opening up of the country from its land-locked status both

internally and externally; agriculture and livestock-

breeding; the development of natural resources; and

agricultural and forest management.

All of these ambitious plans can be carried out only

if there is a climate of confidence and peace in our

subregion — Central Africa. My country has fully

understood this and has pursued a policy of good-

neighbourliness to bring about peace both within and

outside the Central African Republic. Thus, we

consistently contribute, through preventive diplomacy, to

efforts to prevent international conflicts.

A land-locked country whose present Government is

burdened with a heavy and multifaceted legacy, the

Central African Republic is constantly searching for

logistical means to support the economic development

efforts in order to promote an increase in production and

strengthen the fight against poverty.

That is why the future programmes of structural

adjustment should necessarily include social dimensions

because, as has been stated by our Prime Minister, our

Head of Government, the Central African Republic cannot

create new social outcasts, new disadvantaged classes

resulting from these structural reforms, which are often

very restrictive.

At a time when the efforts of the international

community are being speeded up in order to relax

tensions in the world, it is more specifically in the low-

income and poor countries that we are increasingly seeing

armed conflicts producing massive destruction.

Witness the case of Somalia where, after the

withdrawal of the United Nations Operation in Somalia

(UNOSOM), the acute problem of repatriating and

resettling some 500,000 refugees and 400,000 displaced

persons calls for the efforts of all of the international

community.

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Witness also the case of Burundi where the

situation is of concern to my Government, which constantly

encourages that neighbouring Government to secure the

peace.

However, my delegation commends the Joint

Declaration of Peace signed between the President of the

Republic and the Prime Minister, which, I am sure, will

make it possible to reduce the tension and the threat to

security in Burundi, where problems of humanitarian

assistance to refugees are becoming a source of constant

concern to all of the international community.

In Rwanda, the machinery of the Organization of

African Unity for the prevention, management and

settlement of conflicts will become fully operative with a

view to bringing to an end the many sufferings of the

people of Rwanda.

On the one hand, my delegation encourages a return

to normal democratic life in that kindred nation and on the

other the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda

(UNAMIR) and the international community as a whole are

urged to become even more concerned with the question of

security and with the questions of refugees and displaced

persons.

Along this line of thinking, my delegation highly

appreciates the farsightedness of Angola’s President,

Eduardo dos Santos, and of his brother, Mr. Jonas Savimbi

of UNITA, who, thanks to the commendable mediation of

President El Hadj Omar Bongo of Gabon, agreed

definitively to conclude peace through the Franceville

agreement.

My delegation is concerned at the situation in Sierra

Leone, where war has been raging for four years, with great

loss of life and property.

However, we welcome the positive turn of events in

Liberia, where all of the armed factions have understood

the need to lay down their weapons and to sit down around

the table to negotiate a peace — for this war, which has

lasted all too long, will have known no victors and no

vanquished.

The Central African Republic welcomes the fact that

our Organization has been able to affect the course of some

events that were major sources of concern to the

international community. Despite the many situations of

tension that are sometimes difficult to control, we must

welcome the fact that in the two years preceding this

fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations we have

witnessed Africa’s complete political liberation, the end

of apartheid and the gradual introduction of democracy,

notwithstanding isolated setbacks from time to time.

We would cite in particular the Middle East, where

significant progress has been achieved in the peace

process in the region and where real, praiseworthy efforts

are being made daily by the parties concerned, despite

occasional difficulties encountered in implementing the

commitments that have been entered into.

This gives me an opportunity to congratulate the

peoples of Israel and Palestine on their persistent efforts,

which were crowned with success by the signature, on 29

September at Washington, of agreements pertaining to the

second phase of that peace process.

Congratulations should also be extended in respect

of Chechnya, where the Peace Agreement recently

concluded between the parties will contribute to

consolidating a true and lasting peace in the region.

With regard to the situation in Kashmir, we call

upon our friends in India and Pakistan to come to an

understanding and work out a negotiated solution to the

problem, in the name of justice.

Turning to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina,

the Central African Government hails the praiseworthy

efforts of France and the United States to calm troubled

waters. The international community too should exert

every effort to restore peace and security to Bosnia and

Herzegovina, where ethnic, nationalistic or religious

tendencies pose a dangerous threat to the tranquillity and

stability of that part of Europe.

No one is immune to these ancient sources of

conflict, and the Central African Republic sympathizes

with the countries and peoples enduring such tragic trials.

In a few days the United Nations will celebrate its

fiftieth anniversary, without having brought into being the

long-sought new world economic order. The countries of

the North continue to be powerful while those of the

South continue to mark time with an official development

assistance that has declined from 0.38 per cent in 1980 to

0.33 per cent in 1993. Some donors are no longer meeting

their commitments, so Africa continues to live through a

time of poverty, natural disasters, migrations and all kinds

of other misfortunes. My delegation therefore believes

that trade must be urgently liberalized through a

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substantial reduction in tariffs and other trade barriers,

through the elimination of discriminatory treatment in

international trade relations and by stimulating world

economic growth and sustainable development in the

interests of all countries, the developing countries in

particular.

Indeed, the entry into force on 1 January 1995 of the

Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization could

not have been more timely, for were it to be fully

implemented it would solve a great many of the problems

of the land-locked developing countries, the Central African

Republic among them. And, as President Ange-Félix

Patassé said here last year,

“What we need to save the continent is a real

Marshall Plan, because at the present time multilateral

and bilateral assistance remain insufficient to promote

sustained and lasting growth.” (Official Records of the

General Assembly, Forty-ninth Session, Plenary

Meetings, 19th meeting, p. 5)

My delegation is among those that would strongly

urge the most powerful Member States to commit

themselves to working towards the achievement of the goals

set forth in the Charter in order to ensure that the world

does not drift ineluctably towards chaos and disaster.

Finally, with regard to the advancement of democracy,

the efforts of the United Nations will never be sufficient so

long as the Republic of China on Taiwan is not admitted as

a Member of this prestigious institution.

As His Excellency Mr. Ange-Félix Patassé, President

of the Central African Republic, noted in his appeal last

year, under the Charter of the United Nations there are no

large nations and there are no small nations, for all must

contribute to peace and universal progress towards a just,

humane and democratic world.

Democracy and respect for fundamental human rights

have and will have no meaning so long as the hard-working

population of the Republic of China on Taiwan is not

represented here in the Assembly. In this connection it

would be fitting to take into account the precedents that

exist with regard to the parallel representation of States in

the United Nations.

We would recall the following words of the President

of the General Assembly at the opening meeting of this

fiftieth session of the Assembly on 19 September:

“... the United Nations has ceased to be an

intergovernmental organization with a limited

membership and has become the only international

organization that is universal. Efforts must be made

to ensure that all States that are not yet Members

should seek to be admitted in the near future. For

the same reason, the most serious penalty imposed

on a Member State should never be expulsion, but

rather suspension, for the United Nations must, as a

matter of principle, include all the world’s

countries.” (Official Records of the General

Assembly, Fiftieth Session, Plenary Meetings, 1st

meeting, p. 7)

The Government of the Central African Republic

also believes that dedication to international peace and

security should prohibit our engaging in any form of

intimidation or confrontation that can damage

rapprochement among States or, especially, weaken

security. This requires the highly desirable admission of

the Republic of China to the United Nations.

With regard to the restructuring of the Organization

at the end of its half century of life, the Government of

the Central African Republic is firmly convinced that the

only remedy to the delays experienced in intervening in

or contributing to the resolution of tensions or open

conflicts is to be found in a decentralization of the

system. That decentralization should begin with the

democratic and equitable representation of Member States

in the Security Council and at all levels. We regard this

as the only approach capable of taking proper account of

geopolitical and economic specificities.

In any event, this session should provide an

opportunity to draft a new organizational chart for the

United Nations and to adapt the Organization’s structures

and functions in the light of our stocktaking and relevant

comments by Member States.

For its part, the Central African Republic reserves

the right to speak out in the debates in the Committees

and during the ceremonies commemorating the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations. Whatever the case,

everything should contribute to make the twenty-first

century the century of Africa.

In conclusion, the Central African Republic firmly

believes that only respect for and observance of the spirit

and letter of the Charter of the United Nations will truly

enable us to solve the problems that confront us as this

century draws to a close. We hope that this session will

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mark a new stage on the way to effective cooperation for

progress and peace for the international community as a

whole.