Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1993

Mr. President, the speakers who have preceded me

at this prestigious rostrum have all unanimously

acknowledged your outstanding intellectual qualities, your

wealth of experience and your intensive knowledge of

international issues which will guarantee a positive outcome

to our work that promises to be very exciting at this time

when we see emerging on the horizon the irreversible

turning of the activities of the Organization towards real,

mutually beneficial, cooperation.

The delegation of the Republic of Zaire, which it is my

honour to head, associates itself with the congratulations and

wishes expressed by other delegations here present and

expresses the hope that your presidency will see the essential

basis laid down for the establishment of this new era of

peace, prosperity, mutual understanding and tolerance that

we all so wish to see.

I should also like to extend my sincere congratulations

to the other members of the Bureau who, I am sure, will

effectively assist you in carrying out your onerous but

inspiring tasks as President.

To your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Stoyan Ganev,

I should like to pay a particular and well-deserved tribute for

the competence, skill and know-how with which he so

capably guided the work of the General Assembly at its

forty-seventh session.

I should like to express to Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali,

the Secretary-General of the Organization, the sincere

expression of our appreciation and our encouragement of his

determination in the search for peaceful solutions to the

many armed conflicts that are devastating the world.

I should also like to welcome to the Organization the

new Member States. They can count on the cooperation and

assistance, both bilateral and multilateral, of the Republic of

Zaire.

Barely three years ago the overwhelming majority of

the inhabitants of this marvelous planet Earth were filled

with the hope of seeing close and multifaceted cooperation

for development among nations.

Although the cold war was blown away by the force of

the wind of perestroika we are obliged to note that this

forty-eighth session of the General Assembly has opened at

a time when we are witnessing the resumption of armed

conflicts in at least three of the five continents which make

up this world.

The collapse of the socialist bloc brought with it only

a moment of calm for we note at present the explosion of

hotbeds of tension and fratricidal wars in the former Union

of Soviet Socialist Republics and the former Yugoslavia, and

we condemn the monstrous, inhuman and horrendous acts of

modern civilization there.

The primary cause of all these wars is religious or

ethnic intolerance and the non-acceptance of political

opinions contrary to those which one believes to be of

immutable and subject to imposition on all. Thus, in Asia

anachronistic situations persist and entire populations are

condemned to wander without any hope of a better

tomorrow.

Nevertheless, my delegation backs the negotiations that

are now taking place between Israel and the Palestine

Liberation Organization (PLO) on the question of Palestine

and urges all the protagonists in this drama to do all in their

power to ensure that these consultations lead to the

conclusion of a peace agreement guaranteeing the right of

each people to exist in internationally recognized territory.

We hail the courage and determination of their

excellencies the Prime Minister of Israel and the President

of the PLO who have recognized autonomy for Gaza and

Jericho and have also committed themselves to put an end

to acts of piracy and sabotage. May their example be

followed by other States involved in this conflict so that a

lasting peace can finally be established in this region and

that we can see genuine cooperation for development.

So too, we reaffirm our full support and our backing

for the efforts made by the two Koreas towards their

peaceful reunification.

We should also like to take advantage of this

opportunity to congratulate the United Nations authorities

which have effectively contributed to the organization of free

and democratic elections in Cambodia.

As regards Africa, this continent too has not been

spared by the situation of semi-war, semi-peace in which

young States must manage bloody conflicts which sorely try

their fragile State structures and their precarious socio-

economic infrastructures. However, the Republic of Zaire is

gratified to see the international community mobilizing to

prevent new conflicts and to find peaceful solutions to those

fratricidal wars which are devastating a good number of

African States.

The plethora of hotbeds of tension and the recourse to

military action, whether for intervention or for pacification,

are likely to wipe out these efforts and to damage the

humanitarian action and the noble objectives of peace and

harmony pursued by the United Nations.

Concerning southern Africa, in particular, Zaire

supports the action being taken by the United Nations in

Mozambique, and urges all the parties to the conflict to

respect the commitments they have undertaken and to work

towards the establishment of lasting peace there.

The positive results that we have seen in South Africa,

where the white minority has agreed to involve the black

majority in the administration of public affairs in a

Transitional Executive Council, are grounds for satisfaction

for all those who have contributed towards them, and for

legitimate pride for Presidents Mandela and De Klerk.

Given these prospects for peace that we can see just

over the horizon, it is our keen hope that there will be

genuine reconciliation within the black community in South

Africa so that a fratricidal war does not break out that would

quite likely support the notions of those who wish to hold

back the advent of a democratic and multi-racial Republic of

South Africa.

I beg the Assembly’s indulgence, since I should like

now to dwell on the case of our neighbour Angola, which

shares with Zaire a frontier over 2,600 kilometres long; in

Angola, the civil war, which is becoming more intense, is

causing considerable loss of life and incalculable material

damage and is threatening the territorial integrity of that

young nation.

The Republic of Zaire, which, since it acceded to

independence, has had to suffer the throes of civil war,

rebellion and many attempts at secession, cannot afford to

support a civil war in Angola. The tragic situation being

experienced by that fraternal nation is of extreme concern to

us, because it is causing us enormous political, economic

and social problems. Zaire is actually a semi-landlocked

country, and the closure of the Benguela railway and the

continuing insecurity right alongside Matadi port, our only

outlet to the sea - as a result of the crossfire between the

Popular Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola

(FAPLA) and UNITA - are doing my country considerable

Forty-eighth session - 11 October l993 3

economic damage right at a moment when it is no longer

receiving bilateral or multilateral assistance.

In addition to these many economic difficulties, there

has been a massive influx of our Angolan brothers and

sisters, who are finding refuge with Zairian families, to

which they are linked by historical ties of blood. Providing

food, shelter and so on for the refugees is increasing the

difficulties being experienced by the host families, who are

themselves rather disadvantaged.

The international community knows that the Republic

of Zaire right now is going through a period of political

turbulence and is encountering enormous economic and

financial difficulties. In these conditions, where could Zaire

find the additional resources to finance a civil war in

Angola? Taking into account its internal problems, my

country has no interest in promoting the traffic in weapons

of war through Matadi port, given that they could change

hands and fuel a civil war on its own territory.

Moreover, Zaire, which neither makes nor sells arms,

deplores the attitude of those countries whose citizens

manufacture arms and sell them to the belligerents - under

the tolerant gaze of their Governments - and then come and

shed crocodile tears in international forums over the fate of

the victims of this fratricidal war.

The Republic of Zaire, which assisted the Republic of

Angola in its struggle for independence and, through Zaire’s

mediation, facilitated the historic meeting between President

dos Santos and Mr. Savimbi at Gbadolite, is still ready to

seek, with them, ways and means of putting an end to the

Angolan tragedy. This is the spirit in which Zaire welcomed

Mr. Alioune Blondin Beye, the Secretary-General’s Special

Representative, on his visit to Kinshasa last September, and

in which the President of the Republic of Zaire, Marshal

Mobutu Sese Seko, dispatched to his Angolan counterpart an

emissary whose task was to dispel any ambiguity as to

whether there was meddling of any kind by my country in

Angola’s internal affairs.

Lastly, the Republic of Zaire, which has played an

active part at the recent Libreville conference on security

problems in central Africa and will soon sign the non-

aggression pact that was drawn up there, considers itself an

important link in the peace and security of the subregion,

and does not intend to take any action that might sour the

relations of good neighbourliness and cooperation that exist

between our States. Ancient African wisdom tells us that

when your neighbour’s house is on fire, you must help him

put it out in order to stop the wind wafting the flames

towards your own house.

After the political turbulence that Africa experienced

during the first few years of independence, some political

thinkers and players believed, in good faith, that establishing

strong government based on omnipresent and omnipotent

single parties could forge national unity and ensure our

States’ harmonious development. The Republic of Zaire was

no exception to this outline. In fact, for over two decades

now a monolithic political system has been in operation,

with its ups and downs, and has ended up, as a result of its

own internal contradictions, in such deadlock that on

24 April 1990 the President of the Republic, after three

months of consultations of the people, decreed the

dissolution of the single party and proposed the introduction

of a pluralistic political system.

Unfortunately, the enthusiasm that followed gave birth

to a sort of collective outpouring and the frenzied

establishment of political parties, of which there are now

360 for a total population of 40 million or so. In our

concern to make an objective reassessment of our history,

map out our future and ensure national reconciliation, we

held a Sovereign National Conference, which, lasting over

16 months, was the costliest and the longest in Africa.

The Conference raised great hopes but was unable to

achieve all its goals because, from the outset, those behind

it had come to it for two different reasons. For some, the

Conference was the best place to take power along

revolutionary-type lines - dissolving all the existing

institutions and sidelining those in charge of them - while

for others, who championed a reformist type of plan, the

Conference ought rather to be the place for organizing

government through a progressive restructuring of the

institutions. This basic difference caused heightened

passions from the beginning to the end of the Conference,

and the political players ended up more divided than they

had been before.

As the document setting out constitutional provisions

for the transitional period was not taken to its logical

conclusion - it failed to abrogate expressly the Constitution

in force - the country found itself with two basic

constitutional texts. In conditions such as these, it has been

difficult to arrange an equitable sharing of power between

the various transitional institutions, which is why we have an

institutional crisis and a political impasse.

To extricate ourselves from this situation, and on the

initiative of the President of the Republic and the President

of the Supreme Council of the Republic, the delegates of

several political platforms met in caucus to create a new

institutional framework. But the results of the caucus were

again disputed and the entire political class felt the need to

4 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

resume negotiations. These achieved, inter alia, the

establishment of a new institutional framework, the

unanimous acceptance of a timetable establishing the various

dates for elections in the next 15 months and the adoption by

referendum, within the same period, of a new constitution.

Thus, a referendum will be held in 1994 on the

adoption of the new constitution. There will also be free,

transparent and democratic elections for mandates for the

presidency of the Republic, the Parliament and the regional

and local councils. The presence of an independent national

electoral commission and international observers is planned

to reassure all sides of the proper carrying out of all

electoral operations. Thus, Zaire repeats its request to the

United Nations bodies and countries with a long history of

democracy for substantial help in the implementation of

these important timetables.

I should like here, on behalf of the Government of my

country, to thank Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Secretary-

General of our universal Organization, who, at the request of

the President of the Republic, sent one of his closest

assistants, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, to Kinshasa to try to gather

the political class of Zaire around the negotiating table. We

extend to him here the deep gratitude of the people of Zaire

for his selflessness and readiness in his attempt to reconcile

the sons and daughters of my country.

In an atmosphere of political crisis and social tension,

the protection of human rights becomes very difficult and is

subject to suspicions. The reestablishment of State authority

and respect for the laws of the land are often identified, at

best, with constraints and, at worst, with arbitrary actions,

while a country cannot become involved in development

projects without order or collective discipline.

Despite the flaws noted in the implementation of human

rights, Zaire has nevertheless made commendable efforts

along those lines by granting full freedom to the press and

authorizing the free exercise of political activities and the

free expression of opinions. It intends to follow up these

moves by cooperating with the specialized agencies of the

United Nations in making more effective those bodies in

Zaire entrusted with ensuring the strict observance of human

rights.

The democratization process is irreversible in Zaire and

no one is contemplating re-establishing the old order. We

all aspire to change and to the establishment of a State of

law. What is important at the present stage of my country’s

development is to know how to implement that change

peacefully. For now, we are asking the international

community and in particular those countries which wrongly

believe that they have received a mandate to administer

Zaire to let the Zairians themselves settle their own

problems, for whenever they are free of foreign interference

they always manage to overcome their antagonisms. We

therefore urge our usual partners to help us to overcome this

crisis instead of dividing us by canonizing some and

rendering others anathema.

The opportunity has thus been offered to certain

countries that call themselves champions of democracy to

support the organization of free and transparent elections in

Zaire rather than to propose undemocratic plans that bring

people to power who do not have the vote of the population,

which alone can confer legitimacy. That, in our view, is the

only way to rein in the excessive ambitions of certain

political leaders who, in their obtrusive declarations in

Kinshasa and the Western capitals, are harming the proper

unfolding of the democratization process.

The international community is certainly unaware of the

dishonourable treatment experienced by Zairians in their

travel to other countries. At present, it is nearly impossible

for a citizen of Zaire to travel to, or opt to reside in, certain

countries of the northern hemisphere, since for his visa is

automatically refused unless he reviles his country and the

legally established authorities. Is it the full enjoyment of

fundamental human freedoms when he cannot reside in a

territory other than his own unless he requests the status of

political refugee? Are the citizens of Zaire treated this way

being punished for their opinions? How can those countries

that practise this policy of exclusion have a precise idea of

what is transpiring in Zaire when they are preventing one

category of my fellow citizens from freely expressing

themselves and championing political ideas that run contrary

to their own?

The political uncertainties that have overshadowed Zaire

for three years have pushed into the background the

economic and social problems of a country in which strikes,

city-wide shutdowns, civil disobedience and looting have

torn asunder the economic fabric and aggravated the

people’s poverty. Zaire - which has seen itself arbitrarily

and vexingly deprived, under the pressure of certain Western

Powers, of access to financial facilities and to bilateral and

multilateral assistance at a time when its people has the

greatest need - hopes that the new era in the offing will

provide an opportunity for all its partners to assist it to

revive its collapsed economy.In this context, my country

very much hopes to resume dialogue with the Bretton

Woods institutions to improve the management of public

finances and to promote the flourishing of free enterprise.

Forty-eighth session - 11 October l993 5

As everyone knows, Zaire is a subcontinent made up of

a mosaic of tribes and ethnic groups which periodically, as

happens throughout the world, have trouble living together.

As we approach major political or electoral stages, tensions

exacerbated by demagogues is transformed into open

conflicts that compel, often in inhuman conditions, some of

our compatriots to abandon their homes.

The Government of the Republic of Zaire cannot

tolerate a situation in which citizens of Zaire find themselves

refugees in their own land. Thus, more specifically

concerning Shaba, it is not correct to speak of "ethnic

cleansing", since the Shaba, like the two Kasai, are not

ethnic groups but the provincial homes of several ethnic

groups. The Government has taken measures to halt all

forced displacements, ensure the security of those who wish

to remain in Shaba, and organize transportation of those who

have opted to leave in humanly acceptable conditions. This

task, like that of the restoration of displaced persons to their

original homes, requires enormous material and financial

means.

In cooperation with the specialized bodies of the United

Nations and non-governmental organizations, the

Government is working to gather all available means in

order to come to the aid of the victims of this tragedy.

Here we should like to welcome the action carried out,

at the request of the President of the Republic, by the

Secretary-General of the United Nations, who sent a

specialized inter-agency team led by Mr. Darko Silovic to

study in the field the ways and means to bring humanitarian

assistance to these disadvantaged peoples. We fervently

hope that the international community will respond

massively and positively to the Secretary-General’s appeal,

and we are grateful in advance for this.

Concerning the ethnic difficulties in North Kivu, it is

important to know that this is an ancient problem born of

colonization, which was then perpetuated by the

transplantation of Rwandese peoples to Zaire and by the

influx of refugees following the ethnic conflicts that

neighbouring country has experienced. Without lingering

over the underlying causes of this conflict, we should like to

inform international opinion that the Government has taken

measures to re-establish calm in the region and to ensure the

security of all parties to the conflict.

An appeal to humanitarian assistance for those peoples

who have lost everything in these sad events is sent out to

the international community, the non-governmental

organizations and Zaire’s customary partners, in light of the

urgency of the situation and the paucity of our means which

do not allow us to cope with it alone.

Before concluding my statement, I should like to take

up a problem which is of the greatest concern to the

international community and to my country in particular:

environmental protection. Zaire, whose considerable

expanse of tropical humid forest gives it the symbolic status

of the planet’s second lung would appreciate the

international community’s acknowledgement of the huge

sacrifices it is making, which are depriving it of incalculable

financial resources.

The preservation of the ozone layer requires that

additional resources be found for the implementation of

Agenda 21 and the conventions dealing with biodiversity.

Thus, my country believes that its commitment not to cut

down various species of trees which it considers the

common heritage of mankind should allow it to benefit from

certain types of compensation which would fill this financial

vacuum or at least this lack of earning power.

Finally, the delegation of the Republic of Zaire joins in

the request made by numerous delegations for a restructuring

of the United Nations system to allow all Member States,

regardless of size, fully to play their role in building a world

of justice, peace and mutually advantageous cooperation.