Eritrea, 2000

At the outset, I wish to

extend my congratulations to Mr. Holkeri on his

unanimous election as President of the General

Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. I am confident that,

under his able and wise guidance, this session will

successfully accomplish its tasks.

I would also like to express appreciation and

thanks to his predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab,

Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of

Namibia, for the effectiveness with which he directed

the work of the last session.

I also take this opportunity to extend

congratulations to the Republic of Tuvalu on becoming

the latest Member of the United Nations.

We shall not forget to express our thanks and

appreciation to our Secretary-General, not only for his

tireless efforts to ensure respect for the values,

purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter,

but also for his far-sighted and thought-provoking

millennium report.

The fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly is

meeting in the wake of the Millennium Summit, whose

Declaration embodies three fundamental messages.

First, it reaffirms that the ideals and goals of the United

Nations are still sacred to humanity and that the

purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter

are as valid today as they were in the past. Secondly, it

reminds us that the lofty principles enshrined in the

United Nations Charter require us to continuously

strengthen the United Nations and to make the

necessary adjustments and changes to enable it to meet

the challenges of justice, peace and security, poverty

and disease, socio-economic development, the

inequities of the global economy and the protection of

the environment. Thirdly, respect for the ideals and

observance of the purposes and principles of the United

Nations remain the essential keys to the creation of a

peaceful, prosperous and humane new world order. To

this end, the Declaration enjoins us to be loyal to these

common ideals, goals, values and principles. It reminds

us that each State has a responsibility to act not only by

itself, but also within a regional system, to give the

loyalty that is due to these values, goals, purposes and

principles.

In this connection, I wish to join others before me

who have reminded us of the urgent need to reform the

United Nations, including in particular the Security

Council and the General Assembly, with a view to

enabling the Organization to reflect the realities of the

times and to empower it to meet effectively and

efficiently the challenges of the day and the future.

I wish to reaffirm the commitment of the people

and the Government of the State of Eritrea to the noble

ideals and values, as well as the purposes and

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principles, of the United Nations. Having made

supreme sacrifices and paid dearly, during a 30-year

struggle for independence and membership in the

international community, Eritreans appreciate how

essential the United Nations and its Charter are to their

well-being and prosperity. Having fully experienced

the horrors of a long war and the benefits of a short

peace, they recognize the need for the peaceful and just

settlement of disputes and for cooperation for mutual

benefit in the long human struggle to create an

international order based on justice and equality.

To this end, Eritrean foreign policy has been

premised on the assumption that the threat or use of

force can never be an instrument of foreign policy, and

that even in a clear case self-defence it must be used

only after all available methods of peacefully resolving

disputes have been exhausted — and then only with

extreme caution.

It is for this reason — and because Eritrea has

suffered from the non-application by the United

Nations itself of the principles of its own Charter and

the decisions of the General Assembly — that, upon

independence, Eritrea decided to make the ideals,

values, purposes and principles of the United Nations

Charter the cornerstone of its foreign policy. By its

membership, it had also hoped to play an active role in

promoting the principle of the universality of

membership in the United Nations and in promoting

the achievement of fair and equitable regional and

international orders.

Eritrea is also fully aware of its responsibilities as

a littoral State of a strategic international thoroughfare

and has committed itself to contributing its share to the

stability and security of the region, as well as to the

creation of a zone of peace and cooperation in the

region. To this end, it has made every effort to foster an

atmosphere that will enhance cooperation among the

littoral States of both sides of the Red Sea and promote

development and mutual prosperity. It has also played a

major role in the transformation of the

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)

from a simple natural disaster-control mechanism to a

vibrant regional organization which will promote peace

and cooperation among its member States, as well as

advance economic and social cooperation for

development. The recent meeting of the ever-

expanding Community of Sahelo-Saharan States, in

Asmara, our capital, is a testimony to Eritrea's

commitment to the consolidation of the unity of and the

broadening and deepening of cooperative relations

between African countries. This commitment will for

ever be firm.

In spite of its victimization, Eritrea had decided

to forget the past and to start with a clean slate as it

evolved a vision, and set its priorities, for the future. It

established good relations with all its neighbours on

the basis of the United Nations and Organization of

African Unity Charters and the principle of good-

neighbourliness. It assumed that there would not be any

territorial disputes with its neighbours, since its

colonial borders were clearly defined and recognized

and had been accepted at independence by all its

neighbours. It had no reason to assume that its

independence would be threatened by any State, near

or far, any more than it had any reason to assume that it

had the right to use force to expand at the expense of

its neighbours. Its sole ambition as a new member of

the international community was to make up for lost

time in development.

In spite of all its commitments and goodwill,

however, Eritrea has, during its brief seven years of

formal independence, been tested by and had to defend

itself against political pressures, threats and actual

attempts which endangered not only its sovereignty and

territorial integrity, but also its hard-won

independence. True, Eritrea may not be the only new

country in history that has been so tested. Yet it must

be the only Member of the United Nations whose

territorial integrity — indeed, its very existence as a

sovereign, independent State — has been threatened

and is still being threatened at the beginning of the

twenty-first century.

It goes without saying that this struggle to

preserve its independence has been detrimental to the

nation-building and development efforts of the new

State. Yet throughout this time, Eritrea has never

wavered in its commitment to the peaceful resolution

of the disputes. Indeed, it has solved two of its

problems peacefully on a bilateral basis and a third

through international arbitration.

It was perhaps during the last two years that

Eritrea's independence, sovereignty and territorial

integrity were most severely tested. What was labelled

a border dispute proved to be a serious attempt to

reverse history and to recolonize Eritrea — or, failing

that, to truncate it, to Finlandize it, and to turn it into a

satellite State. This attempt was thwarted by the united

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effort of Eritreans at home and abroad. However, the

attempt exacted its cost: the systematic and wilful

destruction of much of the economic and social

infrastructure of the country and the deliberate, brutal

violation of the human rights of Eritreans, including

the terrorizing and brutalizing of the population in the

occupied territories.

Eritrea is convinced that there is no alternative to

the solution of conflicts by peaceful means and on the

basis of the Charters of the United Nations and the

Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the existing

principles of international law.

From the beginning of the conflict, Eritrea has

repeatedly declared that war can never be an option to

resolve conflicts, that neither of the parties can settle

the conflict by imposing its will and creating facts on

the ground and then hope to achieve durable and

meaningful peace. It is a clear manifestation of its

commitment to peace and the rule of law that Eritrea

still remains committed to a peaceful resolution of the

conflict, notwithstanding the occupation of large tracts

of its territory, the displacement of hundreds of

thousands of its people, the continued brutalization and

terrorization of the people in occupied territory and the

feverish war preparations for yet another attempt

against its territorial integrity. It has already taken bold

measures, shown flexibility and made important

concessions, however unpalatable they may have been,

in the hope of achieving a just peace and in spite of the

attempts that are being made to destroy the OAU peace

proposals. Again, Eritrea pledges that it will continue

to do its utmost to reach a comprehensive and

conclusive agreement peacefully.

Yet, the fate of peace hinges on three critical

factors. First, the search for peace is a shared

responsibility. It cannot be left to only one of the

parties. Secondly, peace can be made certain only when

it is anchored on the values, ideals and principles of the

Charter, which have been emphatically reconfirmed by

the Millennium Declaration. Among these is respect for

the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity

of States. Thirdly, peace can be achieved only with the

faithful implementation of agreements accepted by

parties to a conflict. We invite all concerned to join

Eritrea in extending full cooperation to the OAU

Facilitators, in making a genuine and unequivocal

commitment to the OAU peace process and in being

faithful to the letter and spirit of the provisions of the

OAU peace documents, in particular the Framework

Agreement and the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.

At this juncture, I wish to seize this opportunity

to renew our appreciation and gratitude to His

Excellency President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for his

unwavering commitment to the peaceful resolution of

the conflict, and to his personal envoy, His Excellency

Ahmed Ouyahia, for the wisdom and skill with which

he led the indirect talks. We also extend our

appreciation to the international community, including

the Government of the United States of America and

the European Union, as well as other African

governments, for their tireless efforts towards the

achievement of a peaceful resolution and for the

positive contribution they made to ensure the signing

of the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in

Algiers on 18 June 2000. We request them to persist in

their noble endeavour until a genuine and just peace is

really achieved.

Finally, the Government of the State of Eritrea

notes with great appreciation the effort that has been

exerted, and the commitments made, by the United

Nations to ensure an early, comprehensive settlement

of the conflict. In this connection, I wish to draw the

attention of the Security Council to the urgent necessity

of deploying the peacekeeping force authorized by its

resolution 1320 (2000) as quickly as possible in order

to forestall any avoidable obstacles that may threaten,

or even destroy, the gains that have been achieved at

great cost and much effort by so many.