Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1992

In

addressing this Assembly for the first time, I should like, first, on behalf

of my delegation and on my own behalf, to carry out the pleasant duty of

conveying to Mr. Ganev of Bulgaria our most earnest and warmest

congratulations on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at

its forty-seventh session, and to assure him of our cooperation with a view to

achieving a successful outcome.

We should like also to take this opportunity to pay a well-deserved

tribute to Mr. Samir Shihabi of Saudi Arabia for the deft and skilful manner

in which he led the work of the last session.

To the Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, we reiterate our

most earnest congratulations on the outstanding manner in which he has been

discharging his difficult responsibilities since he was elected head of our

Organization.

We also take this opportunity to welcome the positive and beneficial

influence of the activities of our former Secretary-General,

Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, who was able to give our Organization a new

dynamism and brought it closer to the goals assigned to it by its founding

fathers.

On behalf of Zaire, I welcome the new Member States that have joined the

Organization, thereby bringing us closer to its much-desired goal of

universality.

But we are bound to note that the purposes of our Organization laid down

in its Charter are far from being achieved, because in many places throughout

the world the universal peace that we so earnestly seek is still just an

ambition. Indeed, hotbeds of tension have been rekindled, thereby

jeopardizing international peace and security, which our Organization has a

duty to guarantee. We earnestly appeal to all parties in conflict, wherever

they may be, to lay down their arms and exclude the word "force" from their

vocabulary.

In this vein, we find a great deal of merit in the Secretary-General's

report, "An Agenda for Peace" (A/47/277), to the international community, in

which we find valuable recommendations on preventive diplomacy, peacemaking

and peace-keeping.

We believe that the Assembly should give the greatest attention to this

analysis. Zaire pledges its help in studying these ideas, so useful to our

Organization.

The Secretary-General's recommendations lead us to focus on a few of the

many areas of tension.

The Security Council meeting on violence in South Africa made it possible

to avoid a break in the dialogue established within the Convention for a

Democratic South Africa (CODESA). We reiterate our appeal to all political

forces to put an end to their antagonism so that negotiations for the

establishment of a representative government may resume. To this end, we

strongly urge the South African Government to use all necessary ways and means

to put an end to extremist acts of all kinds that lead to violence.

In the Middle East, since the establishment of the Government resulting

from the latest elections in Israel and the resumption of negotiations between

the parties concerned, we have reason for some hope. We Therefore urge all

parties committed to the quest for an overall political solution that would

lead to lasting peace in that region to continue along the path of dialogue.

For some years now we have witnessed considerable efforts by the United

States of America and the Russian Federation the Powers with the most

sophisticated and most destructive weapons, whether nuclear, conventional,

biological or chemical drastically to reduce the number of such weapons,

thereby helping to establish a new era in international politics and in peace

and security for States and peoples. Zaire welcomes this most sincerely, and

we hope that other military Powers will follow their example. If they do, the

second millennium, for which we are preparing so busily, will open up new

prospects for humankind as a whole.

Today, in a surge of world-wide solidarity, the developed countries

living in prosperity should help, in a spirit of true partnership, the

countries of the South to solve the problems related to underdevelopment,

which have many complex causes. It is true that underdevelopment will not go

away overnight simply because the prosperous countries of the North decide to

make available to third world countries financial resources resulting from

cutbacks they may make in their military budgets; rather it will be ended by

strategies to do away with the dire poverty of the nations of Africa and other

underdeveloped countries.

That is why Zaire is convinced that a harmonious future for our planet

depends on peace, security and prosperity shared by all nations, both of the

North and of the South. And that is why Zaire also believes that the Final

Document of the International Conference on the Relationship between

Disarmament and Development should now be implemented in order to find the

necessary resources to solve the daunting problems our peoples face.

It is clear that the collective security aspects likely to create tension

and conflict in the world are not only military, but also spring from the

extreme impoverishment of our peoples, linked to high population growth rates

and the debt burden.

Looking at our ravaged economies, we believe that debt servicing must in

no way hamstring our development efforts. Our countries' total external debt

is constantly increasing, and has now reached more than $1.5 billion. Without

any real readiness to cooperate on the part of the industrialized countries,

and without considerable efforts devoted to the planning and establishment of

appropriate ad hoc structures, there will be no hope of recovery for our

economies.

We strongly hope that those devising strategic development policies for

the fourth decade will take into account the recommendations of the Economic

Commission for Africa (ECA) resulting from the Conference of Ministers

responsible for economic development and planning, held in Addis Ababa from

20 to 24 April of this year, which drew up guidelines for the years ahead.

We also hope that, in accordance with the New International Development

Strategy for the 1990s, the United Nations and the international community

will support efforts aimed at the economic recovery of Africa, for the common

good of all humankind.

Zaire hails the effective measures to protect and improve the environment

envisaged in the Rio Conventions. Indeed, as we have vast areas of protected

forests, we would appreciate acceptance by the international community of the

idea of recompensing countries that set aside major forested areas with a view

to protecting them from the ravages of humankind.

Zaire, whose vast expanses of tropical rainforest have given it the

status of the planet's "second lung", after Amazonia, has for long been in the

vanguard of environmental conservation. Our country has a major network of

linked national parks and reserves covering 8 per cent of our national

territory. Some of these nature reserves the oldest of which were

established more than 75 years ago - protect the rarest of species, including

the okapi, the white rhinoceros and the gorilla. In the context of the

Conventions adopted in Rio de Janeiro, Zaire offers all these natural

resources to the international community as a contribution to the common

heritage of humankind.

Therefore, my country calls upon the international community,

particularly the developed countries, to ensure that additional resources are

made available for the effective implementation of Agenda 21 and the new

Conventions dealing with biodiversity and climate change. My delegation

appeals to all countries to give massive support to Agenda 21 and its

accompanying Conventions; it asks that they sign them and take all the

necessary steps to ratify them. We invite countries of the North that might

still be hesitant about adapting their future behaviour to the requirements of

environmental conservation and protection to respond positively.

It is no secret to anyone that Zaire is today experiencing a deep

multisectoral crisis essentially attributable to the disastrous management of

its human, financial and material resources. The readiness for change

expressed by our people as a whole triumphed on 24 April 1990 with the

statement delivered by the President of the Republic, which finally recognized

the need for democratic political reform.

Following the example of other African countries, Zairians claimed and

obtained the holding of a national sovereign conference. Opened in

August 1991, that conference is taking place in an atmosphere whose tone was

set, on the one hand, by the troubles of September 1991, which ruined the

country's already reeling economy, and, on the other, by a succession of

political crises spawned in the climate of distrust that existed between the

established powers and the opposition. Suspended a number of times, the work

of the national sovereign conference none the less has managed to continue to

this day because our people has spared no sacrifice to lend its full support

to this forum. Because of this, the date of 16 February will live in our

memory. Thus, as I speak, the meetings of the national sovereign conference

are about to culminate, more than a year after its opening, in the adoption of

committee reports following the election of a Prime Minister and the

establishment of a transition Government.

The transition period will be managed by three institutions: the

Presidency of the Republic, the Supreme Council of the Republic, and the

transition Government. As regards the transition Government, the national

sovereign conference elected Mr. Etienne Tshisekedi Wa Mulumba as Prime

Minister in the vote held last August. The transition Government pledges

before international opinion to guide this period of transition in the calmest

and most peaceful manner possible.

The essential, indeed overriding, goal of the transition remains the

establishment of a state based upon the rule of law. Welcoming the role

played by the free press in the evolution of democracy in our country, the

Government is determined to encourage and support the media so that they can

play their full role in all freedom. Moreover, the transition Government and

the Supreme Council of the Republic will establish the High Council for

Audio-Visual Media, which will manage the official press agencies in the same

spirit. The Government is also committed to fighting censorship and to

promoting freedom of the press in all its forms.

The establishment of a State based on the rule of law necessarily entails

respect for the rights of the individual. That is why the Government will

work in concert with the associations responsible for human rights issues. To

that end, they will be granted the civil status that has been hitherto denied

them, as well as being guaranteed access to the media and freedom of action

throughout our national territory.

A top priority for the transition Government is laying the best possible

groundwork for the advent of a State based on the rule of law. To this end,

Zaire intends to hold free and democratic elections shortly. We therefore

urgently appeal to the international community to help us organize these

elections in the greatest possible transparency.

In conclusion, I should like to draw attention once again to the most

alarming situation of our planet, a situation on which the entire

international community is focused. My delegation is convinced that the

United Nations is and will remain the ideal framework for the quest for

peaceful solutions likely to defuse the hotbeds of tension that have developed

in Africa, Asia and Europe.

As for Zaire, I have just recalled the great choices made by the national

sovereign conference to provide the Zairian people with a new era of peace,

democracy and economic development. In accordance with the United Nations

Charter, Zaire announces its faith in the basic rights of the individual. To

that end, my country will spare no effort to ensure the victory of legality,

justice, equity and equality.

I wish the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly the fullest

measure of success.