Ghana, 1996

My delegation wishes to

express its satisfaction and joy in seeing Mr. Razali

Ismail preside over the fifty-first session of the General

Assembly. His unanimous election is an honour to him

personally and also to his country, Malaysia, with which

Ghana has forged very warm and special relations. We

have no doubt that his sterling qualities and long record

of distinguished service to his Government and the

international community will stand him in good stead in

leading this Assembly to a successful conclusion of its

work.

To his predecessor, Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral of

Portugal, we wish to express our appreciation for the able

manner in which he led us through very difficult

negotiations during his presidency.

Our Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali,

has demonstrated, through his indefatigable energy and

commitment to the independence and well-being of the

United Nations, that he is up to the challenges that lie

ahead of us in seeking to revitalize this Organization for

the twenty-first century.

It was only a year ago that we celebrated with

fanfare the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of our

Organization. The world leaders assembled in this

Assembly at that time once again rededicated themselves

to achieving the visions embodied in the Charter of our

Organization and fulfilling its goals and objectives, which

serve the largest interests of humanity. We have gathered

here again this year to take stock of developments since

our last meeting and to renew, through various decisions

and resolutions, our commitment to the promotion of

peace and prosperity for our mutual benefit.

The end of the cold war provides us with a golden

opportunity to work earnestly in pursuit of the

international community’s desire for general and complete

disarmament — including nuclear disarmament — to be

achieved under effective international control. Through

the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

and nuclear-weapon-free zones, most of us non-nuclear-

weapon States are making our contributions in this

respect. My Government is in the process of ratifying the

Pelindaba Treaty, of which we are a proud signatory, and

we appreciate the support of the non-nuclear and nuclear-

weapon States for that Treaty. However, such zones can

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only be given meaning by the nuclear-weapon States’

genuinely accepting the need for the eventual elimination of

nuclear weapons within a given time-frame. It is with this

in view that my country voted in favour of the adoption of

the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and signed it,

despite its shortcomings. We see the Treaty as a first step

in the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons in the world.

We also join the Non-Aligned Movement in urging all

nuclear-weapon States to conclude an international

instrument that would offer unconditional and legally

binding assurances to all non-nuclear-weapon States against

the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. This will

enable all States subscribing to international instruments on

non-proliferation to cooperate freely and unconditionally in

the application of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

We will also continue to urge that more attention be

paid to conventional armaments and to efforts to enhance

international cooperation to curtail and eventually prohibit

the use of anti-personnel land-mines and other inhumane

weapons, which continue to inflict untold damage and

hardship on innocent people long after the conflicts in

which they were deployed have ended. Similar attention

should be given to international cooperation in curbing

illicit transfers of arms. Success in this field will go a long

way towards curtailing the availability of weapons, which

feed the numerous conflicts we have had to contend with in

recent years, to drug traffickers and terrorists.

Internal strife within States, nurtured by racial and

religious intolerance, and the resort to arms for the

settlement of disputes threaten the very existence of a

number of States in diverse regions of the world. In all of

these States, the intransigence of warlords poses serious

challenges to the capacity of the international community in

general and the United Nations in particular to meet their

responsibilities with regard to the maintenance of

international peace and security. We have seen this in the

former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Somalia, Rwanda,

Burundi, Angola, Liberia and Haiti. The efforts made so far

to deal with these conflicts are laudable, but more needs to

be done.

That is what we are doing in West Africa, despite the

recent setbacks suffered from the attacks on forces of the

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in December 1995 and the

outbreak of fighting in Monrovia in April and May 1996.

Though the implementation of the programme for the

disarmament and demobilization of the fighters, their

reinsertion into normal civil life and the holding of

democratic elections in Liberia, as set out in the Abuja

Agreement, are now behind schedule, the meeting of the

ECOWAS Committee of Nine on Liberia, in August 1996

in Abuja, saw the Liberian factional leaders renew once

again their support for the peace process and their pledges

to cooperate with the efforts to bring the Abuja

Agreement back on track. Thus far we have been able to

restore the capital, Monrovia, to its status as a safe haven

and reinstate the Council of State and the Liberian

National Transitional Government. The ceasefire between

the warring factions in the country has remained largely

respected, although there are still disturbing reports of

hostilities between some of the factions.

We do appreciate the assistance of some individual

countries to ECOMOG, as well as the cooperation of the

United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia, but we wish

to stress once again that these modest forms of support

are grossly inadequate, viewed against the enormity of the

tasks in Liberia and the present state of the economies of

ECOWAS member States. The Liberian factional leaders

are tired of the war. The subregion has been able to

broker peace amongst them, but it lacks the means to

provide the resources to implement the peace accord. The

international community should respond to the call for

resources now or run the risk of the situation deteriorating

once again. We shall not tire of reminding the

international community that this Organization, the

Security Council in particular, bears the ultimate

responsibility for the maintenance of international peace

and security. Regional or subregional efforts like ours can

only complement, not substitute for, those of the

international community, which must face its

responsibilities more seriously in Liberia.

For our part, we in Ghana have endeavoured over

the years to play the role assigned to us within the limits

of our resources in meeting our common responsibilities

towards the maintenance of international peace and

security. Since our participation in the United Nations

peacekeeping operations in the Belgian Congo — now

Zaire — in the 1960s, Ghana has been present in almost

all the continents where United Nations peacekeeping

duties call, and we are indeed proud of our contribution

to these international peace efforts.

On the threshold of the twenty-first century, we

cannot hide our amazement that some people and their

God-given territories remain under colonial or alien

domination and foreign occupation. Even more

astonishing is the fact that some otherwise democratic,

administering countries and colonial Powers fail to

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recognize the inalienable right of the administered or

colonial peoples to self-determination, and they fail to

recognize that colonial domination is among the worst

forms of violations of the human rights and fundamental

freedoms of colonial peoples.

It is therefore no accident that we should be gravely

concerned at the continuing lack of progress on the question

of Western Sahara. Despite all of its shortcomings, the

settlement plan agreed to by the parties to the Western

Sahara problem, under the auspices of this Organization,

remains the best option for pursuing a long-lasting solution

in the interest of the Saharan people. We remain concerned

that the identification process has had to be suspended and

the Identification Commission withdrawn as a result of the

failure of the parties to agree on some relevant important

procedures and modalities. To break the stalemate, dialogue

is essential, and we once more call on the Assembly to

encourage the principal parties to the conflict to engage,

under the auspices of the United Nations, in direct talks that

can open the way for the continuation of the identification

process. Urgent attention and action is required to bring to

an end the present unacceptable situation, which poses a

veritable threat to subregional, regional and wider

international security.

In a similar vein, we take this opportunity to reaffirm

our unflinching support for the Middle East Peace Process

initiated at the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991 and

culminating in the Oslo accords. Over the past five years,

several gains have been made, giving rise to hopes that a

just and comprehensive peace in the region is attainable that

would take cognizance of the legitimate right to self-

determination of the Palestinian people and their right to an

independent state. We therefore see the recent outbreak of

violence in the area as a set-back to those laudable efforts

and as a reflection of a growing mistrust on the part of the

parties. We call on them to honour all their commitments

under the agreements reached and to bring the peace

process back on track. In this connection we welcome the

efforts of the United States Administration to bring the

parties together once more.

I should like at this juncture to refer to the question of

the United Nations sanctions imposed on Libya. The

Organization of African Unity (OAU), the League of Arab

States and the Non-Aligned Movement, which represent the

vast majority of States and peoples of the world, have been

calling for some years now for the sanctions on Libya to be

lifted. Our call for dialogue and negotiations that could lead

to an acceptable solution of the dispute between Libya and

the three permanent members of the Security Council, as

well as proposals for a fair trial of the two suspects in

The Hague, by Scottish judges and under Scottish law,

have not elicited the expected response. Let it not be

construed that our calls are based merely on sentimental

considerations of regional solidarity. After careful

examination of the facts as made known to the

international community, and with due respect for the

tenets of international law, we think that the three States

concerned need to reciprocate the flexibility shown by the

Libyan authorities and help to bring to a close an issue

that has unjustifiably caused untold suffering to the

innocent people of Libya. Issues of this nature justify our

support for the establishment of an international criminal

court for the promotion and maintenance of international

criminal justice on a fair and equitable basis.

The relics of the cold war in international relations

remain particularly on the Korean peninsula and in United

States-Cuba relations. We believe that the four-party talks

proposed to ease tension on the Korean peninsula should

foster dialogue, understanding and cooperation among all

the countries concerned and enhance the process aimed at

the eventual unification of the two Koreas. With regard to

United States-Cuba relations, we hope that the blockades

and mutual exchanges of rhetoric will give way to a new

era of dialogue and mutual respect, in tune with current

trends in international relations.

As has been eloquently stated by the Secretary-

General in his Agenda for Peace, there can be no

development without peace, just as there can be no peace

without development. We are convinced that we need to

pursue development as a means of preventing most of the

conflicts, tragedies and humanitarian disasters that

confront the world today. We are enjoined under the

Charter of the United Nations to

“employ international machinery for the promotion

of the economic and social advancement of all

peoples”.

The need for concerted international action to restructure

the international economy; construct a new regime to

guide trade, aid and resource flows; and address the

problems posed by environmental degradation, population

explosion, the debt overhang, abject poverty and disease

in developing countries, cannot be overemphasized. Such

measures would redress the existing global economic

inequalities and eradicate poverty in a way that will

engender the peace and security that we all so dearly

need. As expected, the series of global conferences held

recently under the auspices of the United Nations, which

involved not only Governments but also non-

22

governmental organizations, civil society, the media and the

private sector, have raised awareness of and built consensus

around a number of overarching issues concerning

economic growth and sustainable development. The time

has come to shift into implementation gear and invest the

same political will and energy in the monitoring of the

follow-up process. We want to safeguard the environment

and the welfare of our children, eradicate poverty, ensure

sustainable development, and mainstream gender concerns

in all our activities at the national and international levels,

so that women and men participate fully and equally in all

spheres of life as we approach the new dawn.

It bears mentioning that Africa’s socio-economic

difficulties are further compounded by the twin processes

of globalization and liberalization. Africa therefore needs

the special attention of the international community to

ensure that the profound economic and institutional reforms

it is undertaking to create an enabling environment for

development yield maximum benefit for its people. The

launching of the United Nations System-wide Special

Initiative for Africa in March 1996, if fully implemented,

would contribute meaningfully to this endeavour.

We are painfully aware that international financial

support for Africa is insufficient and unreliable. It is

therefore necessary for the United Nations Development

Programme (UNDP) in Africa to focus on the enhancement

and strengthening of Africa’s subregional economic

groupings, which will serve as building blocks for an

African economic community. This in turn will ensure

Africa’s effective participation in the emerging global

economic order that is increasingly being shaped by the

forces of globalization and economic liberalization.

For our part, we in Ghana are coping, not without

difficulty, with the challenges posed by these forces,

including those that are concomitant with the structural

adjustment programmes that we have pursued for well over

a decade. Coupled with these are those other imperatives

that come with the processes of democratization and good

governance. Our democratically elected Government will

present itself to the electorate on 7 December 1996 to seek

a fresh mandate to continue with the policies that have

ensured stability and development in our country in recent

years.

The entry into force of the United Nations Convention

on the Law of the Sea is a welcome development, and we

fully appreciate the numerous efforts and various

compromises that contributed immensely to putting into

place the various organs of the International Seabed

Authority. We hope that adequate resources will be made

available to enable developing countries to utilize fully the

benefits, and also discharge the responsibilities, deriving

from the Convention.

The financial situation of our Organization remains

precarious and a source of concern to my delegation. The

crunch in the cash-flow situation has not changed for the

better, principally because a number of countries,

including some of the largest, are neither paying their

contributions nor making good on their arrears. It is

important for Member States to provide the United

Nations system with the means and resources required to

accomplish the tasks assigned to it. Support for the

United Nations should manifest itself not only in an

eagerness to restructure it to make it more effective, but

also in the payment in full, on time and without

conditions of assessed contributions, in order to promote

the successful pursuit of the objectives of the

Organization at a time of both challenge and opportunity.

In addressing the cash-flow situation, we also wish to

deplore the high degree of wastage and overlap in the

system, especially during the start-up and liquidation

phases of peacekeeping operations as well as in the

proliferation of mandates. With the consolidation of the

internal oversight mechanisms into the Office of Internal

Oversight Services, coupled with the existing external

oversight mechanisms, it is hoped that the financial

functioning of the Organization will be more cost-

effective.

I should like to conclude by reaffirming my

delegation’s support for the reforms currently being

pursued by the United Nations. In our view, the reforms

in the financial administration of the Organization, the

revitalization of its economic and social structures, the

strengthening of the General Assembly and the

Secretariat, and the restructuring of the Security Council

all should contribute to a better functioning United

Nations suited for the challenges ahead of us as we enter

the new millennium.