Indonesia, 2000

It gives me great

pleasure to congratulate Mr. Holkeri on his assumption

of the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-

fifth session. I am confident that under his most able

guidance we will make substantive progress in our

deliberations. I also pay tribute to his predecessor,

Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, the esteemed Foreign Minister

of Namibia, for the skilful manner in which he guided

our work during a busy year.

I also take this opportunity to commend the

Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his report on

the work of the Organization. I also take this occasion

to welcome the new Member, Tuvalu, to our midst.

The fifty-fifth session opened with the historic

Millennium Summit and the adoption of a visionary

Declaration offering the cardinal principles that should

govern relations among nations. It charted a course

that, if followed, will ensure durable peace and security

as well as common progress and prosperity for all

humanity. It, hopefully, began a new chapter in the

history of the United Nations. Undeniably, expectations

are raised that the Organization will overcome the

pervasive and interrelated obstacles to peace and

development, while strongly reaffirming and

preserving the purposes and principles of the United

Nations Charter. We know that these goals can be

achieved, but it is crucial that Member States, civil

society, international organizations and the private

sector cooperate and work together for that purpose.

These efforts must be supported by the

empowerment of the Organization, entailing more than

charting a new structure and new mechanisms, or

providing additional resources. It demands a

willingness to provide genuine authority and

legitimacy to the United Nations by setting new norms

and agendas as needed. It also urgently calls for reform

of the Security Council. New prospects for that effort

may have emerged in the joint statement of the Heads

of State or Government of the permanent members of

the Council on 7 September. In that statement they

pledged to foster a more transparent and broadly

representative Council to enhance its effectiveness for

peace and security.

One major issue confronting us is the lack of

progress on the elimination of nuclear weapons. We are

even more concerned to see a new rationalization for

their continued use, coupled with repeated assertions of

their legitimacy and necessity, and to see the danger of

the deployment of anti-ballistic missile defence

systems. This lack of progress increases the prospects

of a new nuclear arms race which will threaten the

existing arms control agreements and the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Ridding

the world of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons,

pending their total abolition, is the greatest challenge

of our time.

In contributing to peace and security, Indonesia

has since 1957 actively participated in and contributed

to the various peacekeeping operations of the United

Nations. In anticipating the new and emerging

problems identified by the Secretary-General and, in

particular, the report (A/55/305) of the Brahimi panel,

we are in the process of responding to the new

requirements with a view to bolstering the numbers,

quality and effectiveness of our participation in future

United Nations missions.

Armed conflict and tensions persist in many parts

of the world. In the Middle East we must continue to

focus our attention on the core of the conflict, namely,

the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people to

secure their inalienable rights to self-determination and

sovereign statehood in their own homeland, with

Jerusalem as its capital. In this context, my delegation

commends the Palestinian leaders for their

statesmanlike approach. They have demonstrated their

commitment to peace through the decision to share the

city of Jerusalem, while remaining committed to their

national rights, in order to reach a compromise. Hence,

it behoves Israel to make a similar compromise so that

a final settlement can be achieved. The withdrawal of

Israel last June from southern Lebanon, following more

than two decades of occupation, has finally restored the

territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon within

its internationally recognized boundaries. My

delegation also hopes for a resumption of the Israeli-

Syrian peace talks, based on the Madrid peace formula.

In various regions of the world, however, we see

many positive developments which reflect a new spirit

of cooperation and compromise. These are exemplified

by, among other things, the summit meeting of the two

leaders of North and South Korea, the formation of a

new Government in Somalia, and the ceasefire

agreement between Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is my

delegation's expectation that the same spirit of

cooperation and compromise will prevail in easing the

impact of sanctions on the people of Iraq. It is also an

imperative on humanitarian grounds to address the

issue of missing persons of the parties concerned

during the Gulf war.

In the afterglow of the Millennium Summit and

the first South Summit, which took place in August in

Havana, there was a distinct sense of optimism that the

enormous power and promise of globalization and the

information revolution could be harnessed in the

service of development and in combating poverty. In

this regard, the declarations and programmes of action

provide us with an excellent blueprint for charting the

path ahead. Today, particularly in the developing

countries, millions remain untouched by the benefits of

globalization and the information revolution and, being

bypassed and marginalized, can greatly provoke

instability. Thus, rather than enjoying generalized

peace and prosperity, the world at the turn of the

century continues to be disfigured by ruthless conflicts,

wrenching poverty, blatant inequalities and problems

including hunger, illiteracy and disease. While

declarations and programmes of action are of critical

importance for changing this reality, their

implementation is the key. I am convinced that there

can be no alternative to productive dialogue to achieve

this aim; such dialogue must be based on mutual

interests and benefits, shared responsibility and

genuine partnership.

One of the core issues of development on which

globalization has had a great impact and which requires

such dialogue is that of financing for development, an

issue that has assumed immense importance in the new

global economy. While enormous financial flows have

characterized the global financial system, the basic

problem for the majority of developing countries is that

they are not in a position to benefit from such flows

and must instead depend on official development

assistance, which has sharply declined. Hence the

importance of the forthcoming international high-level

12

event on financing for development that is to be held in

2001.

Another area in which globalization has had a

great impact, one closely associated with financing for

development, is the issue of the indebtedness of the

developing countries which often seriously undermines

their development efforts, particularly in this era of

globalization. Regrettably, the numerous debt strategies

and initiatives employed over the years have failed to

resolve this problem.

Equally important in this age of information is the

need to harness the potential of the information and

communication technologies in the service of

development. Progress was made in placing this critical

issue on the agenda of the United Nations when for the

first time the high-level segment of the Economic and

Social Council this year considered information and

communication technologies (ICT) for development as

its major theme. The outcome, particularly the

ministerial declaration, underlined the critical

importance of unlocking the vast potential of

information and communication technologies for all

humanity.

More than ever before, due largely to

globalization, we must strive for sustainable

development as set out in Agenda 21, adopted in Rio

de Janeiro in 1992. The outcome of that Conference

committed the international community to meet the

economic needs of the present generation without

compromising the ability of the planet to provide for

the needs of future generations. But almost a decade

later, with the exception of a number of conventions

that have been enacted, relatively little has been

achieved in fully implementing Agenda 21, known as

Rio+10. It is therefore important that we seriously

prepare for the ten-year review of its implementation.

In doing so we should be able to generate the highest

political commitment to help to ensure the full

implementation of the Agenda. In this regard, I am

pleased to inform the Assembly that Indonesia's offer

to host Rio+10 has been strongly supported by the

Ministerial Conference on Environment and

Development of Asia and the Pacific.

Only a short time ago the five-year reviews were

held on the Copenhagen conference on social

development and the Beijing conference on women.

From those two special sessions we learned valuable

lessons. We learned that for many people social

development remains an elusive goal and that only

through gender equality and women's empowerment

can true prosperity be achieved.

Clearly the time has come to move beyond

rhetoric and fully implement the commitments of the

various international conferences of the 1990s. We

must also work towards eradicating ethnic and racial

discrimination, religious intolerance and xenophobia,

which threaten to undermine all progress — political,

economic and social. The forthcoming World

Conference against Racism in 2001 therefore presents

an opportunity that must be seized.

We are committed to ensuring that humanitarian

assistance is available wherever and whenever needed

throughout the world. The plight of refugees and

displaced persons must continue to hold a prominent

position on the global agenda, with each nation

meeting its responsibilities to render aid and assistance

in times of natural disaster, civil conflict or other

emergency situations.

We must work also to ensure the integrity of

humanitarian missions. The murder of staff of the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees (UNHCR) in Atambua, West Timor, has

shocked and saddened the world, and nowhere more

than Indonesia. That humanitarian workers should

become victims in the performance of their work is

unacceptable. Let me be clear in stating that this crime

should not go unpunished. The necessary measures

must be taken to ensure that such a heinous crime is

never again repeated. This tragedy should not,

however, result in a withdrawal of humanitarian

assistance, thus compounding the loss. We should work

together to resolve any and all obstacles to the safe

delivery of humanitarian assistance.

International cooperation in the millennium is

unavoidable and indispensable. The quality, extent and

timeliness of such cooperation will make the difference

between despair and progress. In this setting, the

significance of the United Nations should be evident

and accepted. Preserving the role of the Organization

requires the participation of all Member States, large

and small. Beyond declarations, it is time to translate

our ideas into action. Achievement is required in the

twenty-first century. That was the message of the

Millennium Summit.