Eswatini, 1999

I am honoured to address the

General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session as a

representative of His Majesty the King of Swaziland. I

bring with me from the Kingdom of Swaziland warmest

greetings and best wishes to all our fellow members from

His Majesty King Mswati III, Her Majesty the Indlovukazi,

the Government and the whole Swazi nation.

The Kingdom of Swaziland congratulates you, Sir, on

your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at

this session. We are especially proud that a fellow southern

African has been elected to this demanding position, and

we are confident that your diplomatic skills and experience

will help you guide and lead this Assembly towards the

successful conclusion of its deliberations.

We should also like to commend the skilful leadership

of the fifty-third session by your predecessor Mr. Didier

Opertti.

We are meeting at a time of great challenges for the

United Nations. The membership is faced with a number of

issues concerning the very shape of our Organization and

the scope of operations that we choose to undertake. The

Kingdom of Swaziland believes that we are fortunate

indeed to have at this time a Secretary-General who

commands such universal respect and who possesses the

qualities of determination, enthusiasm and leadership that

are so necessary as we chart our course for the future. We

call on him and on the staff of the United Nations to keep

up their good work in the service of all Member States.

The Kingdom of Swaziland believes that the

Secretary-General and his staff can best be supported by

our continuing commitment to meeting our financial

obligations in full and on time. We call on all our fellow

Members to comply by honouring their obligations so that

our Organization can have sufficient resources with which

to cope with the widening scope of its operations and to

meet the expectations of us all.

The Kingdom of Swaziland is delighted to extend a

warm welcome to our Organization’s three new Members:

the nation States of Tonga, Nauru and Kiribati. Their

admission is further confirmation of our respect for the

principles of universality and representation, as contained

in the founding Charter of the United Nations.

But even as we welcome these new Members, the

Kingdom of Swaziland is conscious that the principle of

universality is not applied equally to others who feel

excluded from the activities of our Organization. I refer

to the 22 million people of the Republic of China on

Taiwan, who believe that they are being denied their right

to representation in the United Nations. The Government

and the people of the Republic of China on Taiwan have

shown their willingness and capacity to contribute actively

to global development and peace, through disaster relief and

development support to many countries and regions. The

Republic of China on Taiwan is clearly a peace-loving

nation, and is highly developed in all economic, social and

political spheres.

It is the view of the Kingdom of Swaziland that

international peace and security and equitable development

for all mankind, can be achieved only through the inclusion

of all the people of the world in the one truly global

development Organization. We therefore support the call

from an increasing number of Member States for the

establishment of a working group by the General Assembly

to examine the exceptional international situation relating to

the Republic of China on Taiwan and to ensure that the

fundamental right of its 22 million people to participate in

the work and activities of the United Nations is fully

respected. We recognize that, as has been the case in some

other nations, the matter of reunification is for the Chinese

people themselves.

The history of the twentieth century will have further

evidence to support the belief that man apparently and

surprisingly cannot live peacefully side by side with his

neighbour, nor in harmony with nature and his environment.

Despite the many remarkable achievements of the last 99

years, notably in the collapse of ideological and political

colonialism and in the fields of technology, science and

medicine, it will be, in the end, by world wars,

environmental degradation and the emergence of global

epidemics that this century will be remembered.

The Kingdom of Swaziland believes that the

promotion of sustainable international peace and security

must be the main priority for the United Nations, because

it is clear that our collective aim of raising the living

standards of our peoples is possible only in conditions of

global stability and with nations living in harmony

alongside one another.

It has long been recognized that the greatest threat to

global peace lies in the continuing spread of weapons of

mass destruction. Our failure so far as an Organization to

have true commitment from all Members to arms control

and nuclear disarmament has meant that we enter the next

millennium with this threat still overshadowing all matters

of international relations.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban

Treaty are designed as essential first steps towards a

world free from the danger that such weapons pose. We

clearly need to find a way to strengthen the

non-proliferation regime, and also to prevent the flow of

conventional weapons and anti-personnel landmines into

zones of conflict.

The Kingdom of Swaziland therefore calls upon the

Conference on Disarmament to implement the proposal of

the Non-Aligned Movement by establishing as its highest

priority an ad hoc committee to begin negotiations on a

programme for the complete elimination of nuclear

weapons, within a time-bound framework. We also urge

those States with nuclear weapons to implement faithfully

both the letter and spirit of all agreements relating to the

non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear

disarmament.

Whilst the possibilities of global conflict have

diminished since the end of the cold-war era, it is a fact

that there has been a corresponding increase in the

incidence of internal conflicts and cross-border

disturbances arising from a variety of causes, including

ethnic and religious confrontation. The Kingdom of

Swaziland believes that the emphasis of the United

Nations in dealing with this increase of internal and

cross-border crises should be on the introduction of an

effective mechanism of preventive diplomacy to stop

incidents from escalating out of control. This has been the

focus of regional organizations of which the Kingdom of

Swaziland is a member, such as the Common Market for

Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern

African Development Community (SADC) and the

Organization of African Unity (OAU). We believe that,

while recognizing the overall responsibility of the United

Nations towards global peace, the regional organizations

must take the lead as the building blocks towards stability

and closer cooperation.

The past year in international affairs has been a mix

of progress in some areas of past conflict and the

continuation or emergence of crises in many others. The

United Nations has quite correctly become involved in

trying to help resolve each of these situations, to a greater

or lesser degree, and the Kingdom of Swaziland

commends its efforts and those of all who have played a

similar role.

The Kingdom of Swaziland recognizes the recent

progress made by Israelis and Palestinians towards the

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implementation of the Wye River peace accord. This has

been a most encouraging step towards lasting peace in the

Middle East region and we applaud the courage and

commitment of the leadership of both sides towards

achieving this aim.

The crisis in the former Yugoslavia earlier this year

gave us cause for great concern, especially in the light of

the threat of the conflict’s spreading to other Balkan States.

We pray that the recent return to relative stability will lead

to lasting peace in that troubled region and that the wishes

of the people for their future will be the guiding principle

in any long-term dispensation.

We have viewed with concern the events in East

Timor following the referendum on independence and we

fully support the decision of the United Nations to accede

to the request of the Indonesian Government for the urgent

deployment of a peacekeeping force. We appeal to all

involved to restore calm to the situation and to respect the

wishes of the people of East Timor for their future.

We have watched with equal concern the apparent

setback in the peace process in Northern Ireland. We

support the efforts of the British and Irish Governments to

create the right conditions of trust and confidence, in which

the people of Northern Ireland can decide their future for

themselves. We urge all parties involved to exercise

restraint and to rediscover the spirit of compromise and

reconciliation that characterized the original Good Friday

Agreement.

Closer to home, on our own continent of Africa, the

past year has given cause for some optimism in a number

of areas; but in others, the tale is all too depressingly

familiar.

We welcome with great relief the signing of the Peace

Agreement between the warring factions in Sierra Leone

and we appeal to both sides to abide by the terms of the

settlement so that their people may benefit from the

dividend of peace after so many years of suffering and lack

of development.

The continuing border dispute between Ethiopia and

Eritrea has unsettled all in the Horn of Africa and we

applaud the decision of both countries to agree to mediation

efforts between them by the United Nations and the OAU.

We pray that this sensible move may lead to a peaceful

settlement of the crisis.

The recent signing of an Agreement by all parties to

the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has

encouraged all of us in the region. We hope that there

will be commitment by all signatories to the terms of the

ceasefire and that a lasting solution may be found that

will allow the Congolese people to develop their great

potential in peace. This last success is all the more

encouraging for those of us in the SADC region, since it

came about through the combined efforts of a number of

SADC member States. In a similar vein, heightened

tension between two of our members, Angola and

Zambia, was able to be defused before the situation could

escalate into a crisis.

Both of these situations point to the acceptance of

responsibility by our member States for resolving regional

difficulties ourselves. Of course, this does not preclude

our welcome to the willingness of others, such as the

OAU, the United Nations and individual countries that

wish to be involved, especially in the provision of training

and material and financial support. But we firmly believe

in the principle that African problems require african

solutions and we are determined to come up with the

means and mechanisms to abide by it.

On the negative side, the continent has seen the

continuation of two crises that are having an especially

damaging effect on the lives of the people involved and

that we believe require the urgent attention of the United

Nations.

The first concerns the deteriorating situation in

Angola, where peace remains as elusive as ever. We call

on the leadership of UNITA to respect the terms of the

Lusaka Protocol and to recognize the need to use it as the

starting point in the search for lasting peace and national

healing. We appeal to the international community to

continue to support the efforts of SADC and all of us

who are involved in the quest for an end to the suffering

of the Angolan people.

The situation is Somalia, while possessing different

characteristics, has the same distressing effect on the

people of that unfortunate country. The fact is that the

division and lack of any legitimate central authority in

their country has deprived Somalis not only of peace and

the chance for development, but also of a voice of appeal

in regional and international forums.

The time has surely come for the United Nations to

show real commitment to finding a solution to the

Somalia crisis, in the same way that we are expending a

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great deal of effort and resources in crisis situations in

other parts of the world. The Somali people deserve the

same concern and respect for their future from the rest of

the world as those in countries with perhaps greater global

recognition and resources.

The complex challenges facing the world today lend

greater significance and urgency to the initiatives for reform

of our Organization. The Kingdom of Swaziland believes

that these reforms are essential if the United Nations is to

retain the global credibility and authority that are so

necessary in its operations.

Recent history has shown clearly that the traditional

mechanisms for harmonizing global relations and conflict

resolution, in particular, are no longer effective, and the

United Nations is in real danger of losing the confidence of

its Members in these areas.

Our aim must be to transform our Organization into a

structure that is truly representative of all our Members and

that is transparent and efficient in its operations, while

remaining consistent to the purposes and principles of our

founding Charter.

We believe that the priority should be to achieve

balanced representation in the principal organs of the

United Nations. The Security Council, as a particular

example, requires reform in order to strengthen its

legitimacy. Its composition must reflect the plurality and

diversity of the membership of the United Nations, with

due regard for the profound geopolitical changes in recent

history.

The Kingdom of Swaziland reaffirms its full support

for the African position on reform of the Security Council,

namely, two permanent seats for Africa to be shared on a

rotational basis, as well as three non-permanent seats, and

a re-examination of the exercise of veto power.

It is a fact that the majority of Member States concur

with this need for reform of the Security Council and that

all agree on the urgency attached to the matter. Yet there

has been very little progress made so far by the

Open-ended Working Group established to address this vital

issue. We are concerned at this lack of progress and would

urge the Working Group to overcome whatever obstacles

remain to a resolution that meets Members’ demands for

fairness and urgency.

Turning now to the question of the Millennium

Assembly, to be convened next year, the Kingdom of

Swaziland is encouraged by the emerging consensus

among Member States on the need to articulate a vision

for the international community in the year 2000.

We support the Secretary-General’s theme of the

United Nations in the twenty-first century and the

proposed sub-topics for the Millennium Assembly. Of

these, we believe the closely related sub-topics of peace

and security, on the one hand, and development and

poverty eradication, on the other, to be of the highest

priority in the context of the overall theme.

Future global stability depends on the ability of

national Governments to increase the momentum for

economic development and their capacity to improve the

delivery of job creation and essential social services, such

as health and education.

We believe that poverty eradication can be achieved

only through the promotion of an accelerated pace of

growth and development in the developing countries.

There can be no doubt that, to achieve this aim, we need

the support of the rest of the international community,

and this support can best be coordinated by the United

Nations.

One key factor in the achievement of our aim of

poverty eradication is the concept of the globalization and

liberalization of the global economy. The conclusion of

the Uruguay Round, on the one hand, promised to open

up enormous trade opportunities in the sale and

movement of goods and services, but on the other it

threatened the fragile economies of those countries that

had not achieved the state of preparation to take full

advantage.

The continent of Africa, in particular, continues to

face a multitude of problems as we struggle to settle into

the new world order. Many of us are undertaking painful

reforms of existing structures in order to respond to the

demands of globalization and liberalization. The

implementation of structural adjustment programmes,

often on the instructions of the Bretton Woods

institutions, is having a severely adverse impact on the

social welfare of many African countries, with devastating

effects on the quality of life of our people. We can see

the result of these effects in many countries, where a

decrease in expenditure on social programmes has led to

heightened internal tension and instability.

Clearly, globalization and liberalization as concepts

have much to recommend them. Undoubtedly, they hold

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the key to an economic future of equal opportunity for all

countries. But we are saying that they need to take into

account the unequal starting points of each country: that

some are better prepared than others to take full advantage

of the opportunities they offer and that many of us may

well lose any hope of catching up. We are seeing the very

sovereignty of countries being eroded by the power of

multinational companies. True economic power is being

held in fewer and fewer hands, and the developing

countries are becoming further marginalized. Social

problems increase as people lose jobs and capital and

currency values are controlled elsewhere.

The developing countries cannot wish away

globalization, but we would wish it to adopt a more human

face, one that recognizes and makes allowances for the

fundamental inequalities between the richer and the poorer

nations of the world and makes concessions to allow us the

opportunity to take full advantage of its opportunities in due

course.

For our part in the Kingdom of Swaziland, we are

aggressively pursuing political, economic, social and

institutional reforms that will have a major impact on all

aspects of national life, in accordance with the wishes and

expectations of the Swazi people themselves.

This year, we launched the national development

strategy, a people-driven vision for the long term, providing

a planning framework for government action priorities for

the next 25 years. The core aim of the strategy is to achieve

a sustainable increase in the standard of living of all

Swazis, with particular emphasis on eliminating poverty

from our society. Our priority is to create the conditions for

a vibrant economy and to increase our capacity to provide

our people with a high level of human development.

This long-term blueprint has been used as the basis for

two short- and medium-term programmes of action by the

Government that are linked to timetables and are fully

accountable for results.

The economic and social reform agenda is a

performance management tool that identifies priority actions

and keeps government performance under close, public

scrutiny and the public sector management programme

designed to improve service delivery and cost-effectiveness

in the public sector. We believe that these initiatives, with

the wishes of the people at their heart, will provide us with

the right conditions in which to prosper and to achieve our

human development objectives.

We have very much appreciated the support of the

United Nations in formulating the strategy. The national

development strategy should, from now on, form the

priority target for all development support from United

Nations agencies. We would wish the same from the

international development finance institutions. We share

the concern of many fellow Member States in the

developing world that too often these institutions’ target

for support is not in tune with the wishes of the country

involved and that the process of project design and

approval is painfully slow. We look forward to working

with the United Nations Development Programme and the

international finance institutions to design projects that

coincide with the wishes of our own people, and within

a time-frame that meets our expectations of speedy

implementation.

In 1996, the Kingdom of Swaziland embarked on a

review of its Constitution with the establishment of a

commission that was tasked with collecting the views of

all Swazis on all aspects of the present Constitution. We

have kept the General Assembly fully informed on the

progress of this commission each year, and I am delighted

to report that the people’s recommendations on the

Constitution will be presented to the nation at the end of

this year. The process will then move forward to the

drafting of these recommendations into a formal

document that will be confirmed by the people

themselves, before final ratification.

Throughout the process of constitutional review, we

have been guided by the principle of involving all Swazis

in the drafting of what will be the Kingdom’s defining

document. Consultation with our people on all important

matters is a principle that we have followed throughout

our history, and is one that has helped us to maintain the

peace and stability with which we have always been

blessed.

I have spoken at length about the efforts we in the

Kingdom of Swaziland are making to improve the lives

of our people. And yet, all our plans and all our good

intentions are meaningless in the face of the danger that

threatens to overwhelm our nation. I am referring, of

course, to the HIV/AIDS crisis, which is already having

a severe impact on the lives of many Swazi families and

which undermines all our hopes for a future of prosperity

and security for all our people. We are facing up to the

fact that the Kingdom of Swaziland has one of the highest

rates of HIV infection in the world, and our hospitals and

clinics are stretched to the limit of capacity as a result.

We are making every effort to halt the spread of the

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deadly disease. But it is an uphill struggle and involves us

in bringing about a wholesale change in attitude and moral

behaviour.

Our chief concern is to promote awareness of the

danger and of the preventive measures available. Our

resources are limited, and we need the continuing support

of the international community in our efforts to reverse the

downward trend. This appeal was repeatedly made at the

recent Eleventh International Conference on AIDS and

STDs in Africa held in Lusaka. We therefore join other

Member States in a similar predicament in appealing to the

United Nations to coordinate an international response to

the crisis. The very future of our nation, and that of many

others, depends on those with the technical and financial

resources joining forces with us to stem the deadly tide.

In conclusion, I should like to take this opportunity to

express the deep gratitude of Their Majesties, the

Government and the whole Swazi nation, to the United

Nations Development Programme and all its sister agencies,

for the many programmes of assistance undertaken in the

Kingdom of Swaziland since our independence.

We believe that the United Nations, as the one truly

global development Organization, remains the only hope for

overcoming the many complex challenges facing the world

today. Despite the setbacks and obstacles to achieving our

collective aims, there can be no doubt that the world would

be a more troubled place without the combined efforts of

all of us here.

The Kingdom of Swaziland therefore takes great pride

in reaffirming its commitment to the principles and ideals

contained in the United Nations Charter, and we ask

Almighty God to watch over and guide us in the

challenging times ahead for our Organization.