Central African Republic, 1997

First and foremost, Sir, I would like to echo

the eminent speakers who have already addressed you from

this rostrum in conveying the warm congratulations of the

Central African delegation on your resounding election to

the presidency of this, the fifty-second session of the

General Assembly. The fact that you, Sir, have been chosen

bears witness to the fact that your country, Ukraine,

continues to play an important role on the world stage.

Your wealth of experience and your abilities as an

experienced diplomat augur well indeed for the success of

our work, and I can also assure you that you can count on

our support and our availability to assist you.

I would also like to express our fullest satisfaction

with the work of your predecessor, Mr. Razali Ismail, for

the talent and skill with which he so wonderfully

discharged his duties. And we assure His Excellency

Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, whose election was

only a just reward for his many years of service to the

United Nations, of the renewed support of the people and

Government of the Central African Republic.

This session is being held at a delicate time in the

history of our Organization, because it is faced with many

different political, economic, social, cultural, legal and

institutional problems which call for the appropriate

reforms.

To renew the United Nations, to turn it into a

dynamic, democratic and effective organization, is a major

challenge for this session, which the Secretary-General

quite rightly described as the Reform Assembly. His

brilliant report presented on 16 July 1997 is perfectly in

tune with the Member States’ expectations, because it not

only highlights the challenges facing us on the threshold of

the first century of a new millennium, but it also, and

above all, puts forward proposals for the longer term.

The United Nations has a very important role to play

in the areas of safeguarding and maintaining international

peace and security and promoting social and economic

development, democracy, human rights and justice. The

Organization must be reformed and strengthening so as to

better confront the new realities of today’s world. The

Central African Republic will make its own modest

contribution to this very important endeavour in close

collaboration with the member States of the Organization

of African Unity and the Non-Aligned Movement.

As regards reforming the Security Council, the

Central African Republic hopes that the Council will be

expanded so as to provide equitable geographical

representation.

But what about the ever-widening gap between three

quarters of humankind and the remainder? What about the

proliferation of armed conflicts against a backdrop of

intolerance, ethnic tension and deadly political

confrontations that jeopardize international peace and

security? Our Organization does not seem to be able to

come to grips with these problems.

And yet, a few years ago, after a series of major

events radically transformed the old post-war order, we

believed that the world was at last poised to move into a

new era because of the ensuing clear-cut improvement in

the international political climate and the new possibilities

for cooperation that emerged. These were supposed to

build confidence among nations and facilitate the quest

for compromise on most of the questions of concern to

the international community.

Regrettably, we were overly optimistic. In reflecting

on the sad realities of the day, I have in mind particularly

the many human lives lost in vain in Algeria and the

thousands of women and children forcibly torn from their

homes and who, in the neighbouring Republic of the

Congo, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Somalia and elsewhere,

are still paying a heavy price for our imperfections, our

contradictions and our intolerance.

I believe that it is time to call upon the international

community and our Organization — which in this

alarmingly serious case seems not to be fulfilling its

primary responsibility for the maintenance of international

peace and security — to tackle resolutely the internal

conflicts that are unfolding within our own States. We

must address these new conflicts, which entail serious

violations of fundamental human rights and which we are

ill-prepared to prevent and manage, because what is at

stake is the very existence of our States, along with the

balance and cohesiveness of the international community.

The Central African Republic had cause to welcome

the convening on 25 September last of the ministerial-

level meeting of the member States of the Security

Council devoted to the situation in Africa. The

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recommendations emanating from those deliberations should

be translated into reality.

The delegation of the Central African Republic

nonetheless welcomes the fact that significant progress

towards peace has been achieved in Angola, Liberia and

Haiti. But we continue to believe that a great deal of work

remains to be done by the parties concerned to overcome

the obstacles standing in the way of reconciliation and the

restoration of peace in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and

in Cyprus.

Unlike in other regions of the world, where renewed

economic growth is henceforth irreversible, Africa’s lack of

good performance and its economic and social situation

remain a cause for concern in this era of globalization.

However, we are not underestimating the scope and the

complexity of the crucial problems facing the international

community at century’s end. To resolve these problems, a

new type of cooperation is urgently needed so as not to

exclude three quarters of humankind from the march

towards progress and the common weal.

Africa continues to experience immense economic

difficulties because of its lack of control over certain

external factors affecting its development, such as the

collapse in the prices fetched by its commodities, its debt

burden and the inadequacy of its capital flows, which have

prevented it from achieving sustained economic growth and

raising the living standards of its peoples.

Worse yet is the case of the least developed countries,

most of which are located on the African continent and

whose situation remains abysmal notwithstanding the timid

steps forward taken here and there. Though globalization

has given rise to a new social contract, the principle of

partnership and of shared responsibility between the least

developed countries and the international community, with

the goal of reversing socio-economic decline and speeding

up the process of sustained growth and sustainable

development, should guide both sides in their commitment.

Now the question is how to become competitive without the

support of official development assistance, which is

continuing to decline.

As we see it, this alarming situation calls for a

pragmatic approach to cooperation between Africa and its

partners, in particular the international financial and

monetary institutions, which should not lose sight of these

factors in determining modalities for cooperating with the

continent and providing it access to global resources. We

cannot overemphasize the urgent need for a greater sense

of responsibility and for a far stronger commitment on the

part of the entire international community vis-à-vis this

continent, which is foundering economically and socially.

It is this new awareness that will help Africa emerge at

last from the chaos and anarchy that continue to engulf it.

Without economic and social progress, there can be

no talk of peace nor of democracy, because peace,

democracy and development go hand in hand. This is

especially true in the case of the Central African

Republic, long known, owing to its long-standing

commitment to peace, as the Switzerland of Africa. Its

President, Ange-Félix Patassé, rose to the highest office

in the land through free and transparent elections and

daily preached peace and dialogue in the Central African

subregion. Nonetheless, the world was recently witness to

the sad spectacle of the Central African Republic’s being

assailed by what have come to be known as the serial

mutinies of Bangui, simply because of its inability to

consolidate its still fledgling democratic experience

through sustained economic and social development.

The case of the Central African Republic casts light

on the root causes of the wave of violence that is

sweeping our subregion. The mutinies — which,

tragically, lasted a full year and have thrown the entire

country into near-civil war — occurred against the

backdrop of a tribally motivated attempt at regaining

power and as the result of manipulation by outside forces

seeking to put an end to our democratic process. But none

of this would have been possible had it not been for the

very difficult economic and social situation of our

country. The joint impact of a terrible legacy, the free-fall

devaluation of the CFA franc and the chronically meagre

revenues coming into the public treasury had for all

practical purposes created a situation in which the State

could no longer regularly pay its civil servants.

The upshot of this crisis was all but catastrophic

because the damage done by the tragic events of April,

May and November 1996 gravely undermined our

country’s potential for economic and social development.

The technical committee set up to take stock of the

damage concluded that for the first two cases of mutiny

alone, it would cost some 41.9 billion CFA francs to

make up for the losses experienced by the State,

businesses, projects and individuals — not to mention the

cost of the measures needed to help the many victims of

that conflict.

Beyond the necessary mobilization of all our

compatriots — to whom His Excellency Mr. Ange-Félix

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Patassé, President of the Republic, has issued a powerful

call for the restoration of peace and national unity as a

foundation for the genuine economic recovery of our

country — it is only appropriate for our partners and the

entire international community to stand with us and not

against us. For it is the intention of the Central African

Republic to continue and consolidate the democratic process

to which it is resolutely committed.

And beyond the praiseworthy support of the Office of

the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR), my landlocked country must be given the

wherewithal to continue to be — as we already are out of

a sense of moral duty — a land of welcome and hospitality

for Sudanese, Rwandan, Burundian, Congolese and other

brothers and sisters who are paying a heavy price for our

world’s intolerance, ethnic tensions and deadly political

wrangling.

The fact is that it is in adversity that one knows one’s

true friends. Our own adversity has enabled the people of

the Central African Republic to gauge the sympathy and

solidarity they have enjoyed during the most trying times of

their history. On behalf of His Excellency Mr. Ange-Félix

Patassé, President of the Republic and Head of State and of

Government, and of the people of the Central African

Republic, I reiterate our thanks to the entire international

community, and most particularly to France, the Federal

Republic of Germany, the United States of America, Japan,

the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

Gabon, Chad, Senegal, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso, the

United Nations, the Organization of African Unity and the

European Union, for the support and invaluable assistance

they are graciously according us.

I take this opportunity also to convey particular thanks

to all the States members of the Security Council, which on

6 August last unanimously adopted resolution 1125 (1997)

on the Central African Republic. The immediate effect of

that decision was to deter open attempts at destabilization,

and to enable — as it continues to do — the Inter-African

Mission to Monitor the Implementation of the Bangui

Agreements (MISAB) better to ensure peace and security

in the capital and the provinces of the Central African

Republic.

The peace is still fragile and precarious, and on behalf

of the entire people of the Central African Republic we

urgently appeal to the United Nations to enable the mandate

of MISAB to be extended until the Central African

Republic possesses a loyal national army that can guarantee

the survival of our republican institutions.

I wish the Assembly full success in its work on the

basis of the principle of universality which is so dear to

our Organization.