Kuwait, 1995

It gives me great pleasure, on behalf of the

delegation of Kuwait, to convey to Mr. Diego Freitas do

Amaral our sincere congratulations on his unanimous

election to the presidency of the fiftieth session of the

General Assembly. We have no doubt that his election is

testimony to his expertise and skills, which will guarantee

the able stewardship of this historic session. I assure

Mr. Freitas do Amaral of the support and cooperation of

the delegation of the State of Kuwait.

I take this opportunity to commend the President of

the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session, His

Excellency Mr. Amara Essy, Minister of Foreign Affairs

of Côte d’Ivoire, for his significant contribution to the

work of this world body as well as for the wisdom he

demonstrated as he presided over the deliberations of the

last session.

Let me also pay tribute to the Secretary-General, His

Excellency Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his immense

efforts to streamline the structure and operations of the

United Nations with an eye to the constantly changing

modern world. Also, I should like to put on record

Kuwait’s support for the proposals put forward by the

Secretary-General in his programme of action to deal with

potential crises, the use of preventive diplomacy and the

modalities of peacemaking and peace-building. In this

context, special mention should be made of the Secretary-

General’s annual report on the work of the Organization,

which demonstrates incisive vision combined with a

dispassionate and in-depth analysis of the challenges

facing the United Nations. The report outlines in a

responsible fashion the failures suffered in some of the

activities and operations undertaken by the Organization.

Next month, a great number of Heads of States or

Governments will come to New York City to celebrate

the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the United

Nations. This massive presence will reflect a genuine

belief in the role of the United Nations in building a

world founded on justice, equality, coexistence and

cooperation, free of tension and aggression. Their

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statements in this Assembly Hall will no doubt define their

vision of the tasks the United Nations should undertake,

their hopes for the ideal way of life that should prevail in

the world and their determination to spare no effort in

working for a better world. We cherish the wisdom of the

founding fathers who established an Organization that

embodies mankind’s collective effort and hope in a better

world that would differ from the world of war and strife,

which wrought enormous destruction in terms of

geopolitical entities, property and human life. States were

destroyed and entire human populations were annihilated to

satisfy the capricious whims of individuals who were driven

by greed and hegemony. The scale of sacrifice and

devastation, and the toll in human life caused by the

development of atomic weapons was too immense to

ignore. In the wake of such destruction, the world’s leaders

were determined to make the Second World War the last

war the world should ever endure.

The signing ceremony of the United Nations Charter

in San Francisco was, in a sense, a universal pledge to

renounce the use of force, to embrace peaceful coexistence

and to shun the power politics of blackmail and hegemony.

Regardless, the world continued to live thereafter in an

environment that differed from the vision of the founding

fathers of the United Nations. The intense bipolar strife that

followed plunged the world in the maelstrom of a cold war

that lasted for some five decades and spawned numerous

regional conflicts with which the United Nations dealt

within the constraints imposed by big Power rivalries. The

inability to act was not due to impotence on the part of the

United Nations but was the direct result of that bipolar

rivalry. Notwithstanding, the Organization did manage to

demonstrate its effectiveness in many a peace-keeping

operation it undertook over the past decades and did

manage to pacify many a volatile area.

In point of fact, experience has shown, over the past

few decades, that the presence of the United Nations in the

areas of tension did prevent the eruption of conflict and war

in several flash points while its absence increased the

chances of war. In all this, the United Nations has been a

true reflection of the will of its Member States and, during

the cold war, it provided a war-prevention mechanism by

creating buffer zones between the belligerents. It was

effective in containing tensions and in creating a climate of

peaceful negotiation.

Over the years, the United Nations system has

developed an array of effective and credible mechanisms,

and gained wide-ranging experience and undoubted

credibility that are employed to the common benefit of

mankind. Over the past 50 years, since the adoption of its

Charter, the United Nations has worked consistently to

give real meaning to the dream of peoples all over the

world, that of saving

“succeeding generations from the scourge of war,

which ... has brought untold sorrow to mankind” —

as expressed in the opening paragraph of the Charter. In

large measure, the United Nations has lived up to its

initial commitment.

Once the cold-war chapter was closed, the world

started to edge towards rapprochement and meaningful

dialogue. Once the arms race ended, an intense

development-race started. The territorial-gains mentality

gave way to a new commitment to intensive human

development. Thus the new challenge facing our world

now is the fulfilment of the immediate concerns of the

human person and his or her right to live in dignity.

The world was an arena of rivalry between the

super-Powers; now it has become a vast battlefield in the

war against poverty and backwardness. The world was a

battleground for fighting between various blocs in

different regions; now many regions are closing ranks in

a common effort to combat illiteracy and want. While the

world was the theatre of many a battle, now the world

has but one battle, that of trying to break loose from the

grip of underdevelopment and backwardness.

We in Kuwait were in the forefront of donors for

development. The volume of assistance we offered was

the highest, in terms of gross national product, because

we wanted to live in a world dominated by justice, a

world whose hallmark is human compassion, a world in

which the privileged will reach out towards the

underprivileged without strings attached.

Along these lines, Kuwait welcomes the trend

towards the consolidation of relations between members

of the family of nations on the basis of equality. We are

part of a common effort to eliminate tensions. We rely on

the collective will of nations to suppress aggression, and

on global cooperation to confront underdevelopment.

Against this backdrop, we cannot overlook the need

for reform and restructuring inside the United Nations

itself with a view to bringing the system more into line

with these new objectives. In 1945, 50 founding Member

States signed the Charter. Ever since, 135 other States

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have joined the membership. Regardless, the Security

Council, which is a major organ of the system, has, for

example, retained its original structure — without change

to reflect the enormous expansion in the membership of the

United Nations. Nor has the Economic and Social Council

shown, as yet, significant improvement in programme

delivery, as dictated by the requirements of modern

development, in the broad sense of such requirements, at

the threshold of the twenty-first century.

We call for expanding the membership of the Security

Council in order to enable the larger membership of the

United Nations to participate in the process of decision-

making. The change, which would enhance fairness, should

be effected in such a way as to ensure balance between the

requirements of efficiency and of expansion. We also call

for more transparency in the Council’s methods of work,

for this, in our view, would reinforce our sense of

collective participation and responsibility. We are also in

favour of the trend towards better use of the resources of

those States that can contribute significantly to

peace-keeping operations and development activities.

The people of Kuwait participate in the celebrations of

the United Nations fiftieth anniversary with a deep sense of

gratitude to the Organization for its crucial role in liberating

Kuwait from occupation. The people of Kuwait recognize

the firm resolve of the world community in rejecting

aggression and its commitment to putting an end to

occupation. We cherish the determination displayed in the

series of successive resolutions adopted by the Security

Council from the second day of August 1990, when the

people of Kuwait, together with the rest of the world, were

taken by surprise by the sneak invasion of the State of

Kuwait by Iraq. That naked aggression was committed in

total violation of the principles of the Charter of the United

Nations and international treaties. Beyond Kuwait, the

invasion totally shattered the security and stability of the

entire Gulf region.

In facing up to that blatant aggression, the United

Nations did indeed live up to its principles and was true to

its mission. It did indeed stand firm in upholding justice

and in defending the victim.

Building on the Kuwait experience, it is our hope that

the critical role that the United Nations can play will be

fully utilized to further consolidate the underpinning of

peace and to safeguard security and stability. The United

Nations system can indeed provide deterrence in the face of

those regimes that harbour schemes of aggression. There is

a full range of measures and restrictions that the United

Nations can put in place to ensure the isolation and

curtailment of those aggressive regimes and, if need be,

to strip them of their stockpiles of weapons that can be

used in committing aggression.

The ultimate goal of the United Nations is to ensure

equality, mutual respect amongst Member States and

respect for the will of peoples. This would be conducive

to peaceful coexistence among nations and would create

a favourable atmosphere allowing freedom of choice in a

democratic climate, where the stronger cannot dominate

the weaker, nor can a big country exploit a small

neighbour, nor one party assume a privileged role to the

detriment of others.

Over a long period — since the end of the Gulf

war — the Iraqi regime has continued to claim that it has

fulfilled all its obligations under all Security Council

resolutions relating to the situation between Iraq and

Kuwait, especially resolutions 687 (1991) and 715 (1991),

and thus blamed the Security Council and the Special

Commission for the delay in lifting the sanctions imposed

on Iraq. The Chairman and staff of the Special

Commission, as well as the Security Council itself, have

been harshly and offensively criticized by senior Iraqi

officials and the regime-controlled media.

In view of the recent dramatic surprises that

unfolded in regard to the Iraqi armament programmes, a

thoroughly legitimate set of questions arises — namely:

Does the Iraqi regime have any more credibility? Who

amongst us would be willing to accept Iraq’s statements

at face value? Who would believe its claims, echoed at

every gathering or forum, that it had met its obligations?

What about Kuwaiti property and military hardware

looted from Kuwait? Who can go along with Iraq’s

assertions regarding Kuwaiti and third-country prisoners

and hostages?

The tragedy of Kuwaiti and other prisoners held by

Iraq remains unresolved four years after the liberation of

Kuwait. This is due to the intransigence and

procrastination of the Iraqi regime, which continues to

sidestep a straightforward and genuine resolution of this

human tragedy. This represents a failure on the part of

Iraq to fulfil its commitments under paragraph 30 of

Security Council resolution 687 (1991), which demands

that Iraq should cooperate fully with the International

Committee of the Red Cross.

Accordingly, Kuwait reiterates its appeal, to the

Security Council in particular and to the world

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community in general, to continue to bring pressure to bear

on Iraq, in a bid to bring this painful episode to an end.

Iraq’s false claims and lies that it is sincere in its efforts to

close this case should be met with a firm stand. Indeed, this

was the only course of action that forced Iraq in the first

place to cooperate with the Special Commission.

Iraq must recognize that participation in the meetings

of the Tripartite Commission and its sub-committee is not

an end in itself. The purpose of these meetings is to secure

the freedom of prisoners and to account for the missing

persons. The litmus test of Iraq’s cooperation in this area is

the number of persons released or accounted for. Mere

attendance at those meetings is an exercise in subterfuge,

intended by Iraq to mislead world public opinion and to

circumvent its obligations.

The final objective of Kuwait’s overall policy is to

ensure security and stability in our region. This goal will

remain elusive unless and until Iraq implements fully and

unconditionally all relevant Security Council resolutions.

We are aware of the difficulties endured by the Iraqi

people. However, the responsibility for the suffering of the

Iraqis lies squarely on the regime itself which wasted

valuable time since April 1991 in pursuing a futile course

of prevarication, deception, suppression of data and

misinformation in regard to every area of its mandatory

obligations.

The most recent events came to confirm our

suspicions and fears, namely, the disclosure of the

possession by Iraq of an arsenal of prohibited weapons of

mass destruction, which were being prepared for use against

peoples of the region without heed for the potential massive

loss of human life.

In the meantime, let me take this occasion to set on

record that Kuwait affirms the need to maintain the unity

and territorial integrity of Iraq. In view of the hardships

faced by the Iraqi people, Kuwait has moved to send,

through the Kuwait Red Crescent Society, food and medical

supplies to the Iraqi civilian population in areas bordering

Iran and in Northern Iraq. We will continue to pursue this

policy on humanitarian grounds.

In the context of international endeavours to bring

about just, durable and comprehensive peace in the Middle

East, Kuwait follows closely the ongoing peace negotiations

between the immediate parties. We support the negotiations

process. In our view, this process should be anchored in the

set of principles agreed upon, namely, full withdrawal in

return for peace. Also, progress should be made on all

tracks of negotiations. And the final peace package should

be satisfactory to all sides because this would be the real

guarantee of a lasting peace.

Kuwait did participate in the multilateral negotiations

because we believed that our role within the multilaterals

would strengthen the position of the Arab parties engaged

in the bilateral talks and would eventually give

momentum to the process as a whole. We fully appreciate

the position of our sister State, Syria, which insists on full

Israeli withdrawal from occupied Syrian territory in return

for peace. Israel cannot attain full peace without complete

withdrawal.

In the same vein, international efforts should

intensify to ensure full implementation of Security

Council resolution 425 (1978) which requires

unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese

territory and the exercise by the Lebanese Government of

its sovereignty over all Lebanese territory, including the

South. In the end, the territorial integrity and

independence of Lebanon must be preserved.

Furthermore, Kuwait supports the self-rule

negotiations between the Palestine National Authority and

Israel. In our view, the agreement signed yesterday in

Washington, D.C. regarding the expansion of the self-rule

arrangements represents an important step in the right

direction towards the exercise by the people of Palestine

of their right to self-determination and the establishment

of their independent State.

In this regard, let me recall that Kuwait has pledged

$25 million in aid to the development programmes

undertaken by international specialized agencies in the

self-rule areas. Indeed, Kuwait has started disbursement

of funds earmarked for those purposes.

Also, we would like to underline the status of

occupied Al-Quds, given its special significance to the

three heavenly-revealed religions. We emphasize that Al-

Quds is Palestinian territory under occupation and should

as such be subject to the withdrawal conditions under

Security Council resolution 242 (1967).

Kuwait welcomes the recent developments aiming at

achieving a fair settlement of the situation in the Republic

of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We expect such a settlement

should satisfy the behests of international legality and be

based on Security Council resolutions. In the wake of

large-scale suffering, destruction and displacement, the

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people of the region now yearn for an overall settlement

that satisfies the demands of all parties, especially the

people of Bosnia and Herzegovina who insist on

maintaining their independent State on their own territory

without any interference from outside. My Government

values the role played by the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO) and the United Nations Protection

Forces (UNPROFOR) in opposing territorial expansion by

the Serbs at the expense of other parties, as well as the

actions taken to lift the siege on Sarajevo. It is our hope

that this joint NATO-UNPROFOR action will persist until

the declared objective is attained, that is, the conclusion of

a final accord that brings security and stability to the whole

region. It is our sincere hope now that the most recent

agreement reached several days ago will be honoured by

the parties to the conflict.

Experience has shown that regional groupings and

arrangements can play an effective role in addressing

contentious issues that create tension, impact adversely on

peace and security and poison the relations amongst the

people of a given area. These groups have also

demonstrated a great sense of commitment in defusing flash

points of tension that might undermine regional security.

A case in point is the experience of the Gulf

Cooperation Council whose member States are firmly

convinced that understanding among them is crucial in

steering away from frictions and tensions. To them,

dialogue is an essential channel of confidence-building

among neighbour States. Since our established policy

considers negotiations as the only viable means of resolving

disputes, we call upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to

respond favourably to the call by the United Arab Emirates

to resolve the problem of the islands occupied by Iran by

the means suggested by the International Court of Justice.

Such an approach would indeed reinforce the principle of

understanding and negotiations to which we adhere as a

primary component in relations among States.

Kuwait is convinced that world peace is indivisible

and that it has far-reaching multiple implications on all of

us. Accordingly, ethnic disputes, tribal wars and factional

conflicts should be addressed as phenomena that can lead

to massacres and genocides and to a total collapse of the

afflicted communities. Therefore, in this year which marks

the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, we ring down

the curtain on the Rwanda tragedy before a solution is

found, nor can we walk away from the catastrophe in

Somalia, nor give up hope in the face of enormous odds in

Afghanistan. All these remain burning issues despite the

feeling by some Powers that they have moved outside the

circle of global strategic limelight.

We call for scaling up the efforts and showing more

determination in addressing these festering wounds within

the framework of collective world peace.

The burden of debt is a major constraint on the

budget resources of many nations, especially the

developing ones. It aggravates their social problems and

pushes up unemployment rates to a point where it

undermines domestic security and stability and endangers

the lives of millions of people.

Back in 1988, His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad

Al-Jaber, Emir of the State of Kuwait, launched from this

rostrum an initiative to write off the foreign debt under

which many least developed countries were suffering.

Those countries have been victims of a complex host of

factors that denied them the privilege of a calm life and

indeed posed a real threat to their very existence. Kuwait,

for its part, cancelled all interest on loans to these

countries in a bid to alleviate their debt burdens. It is our

hope that this approach would be expanded and that the

developed nations would cancel the interest on their loans

to the developing countries.

The dreams of the Charter’s authors stood the test of

time and transcended the tensions and limitations of the

cold war. The era of the cold war was characterized by

the stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction to the

detriment of construction needs. It represented a hard

drive to acquire the means of annihilation at the expense

of the means of development. Prestige was put ahead of

real meaningful growth. Human ingenuity was put in the

service of human exploitation rather than in the service of

enhancing human freedoms. That chapter is now over.

And we have entered a new epoch in which we have to

heed the rational calls for civilized conduct in order to

build up an atmosphere of genuine brotherhood and

harmony. This can only be achieved by our collective

endeavour that emphasizes our universal identity. Only

through such a common effort can we pool together the

resources and energy of all peoples, big and small, to

achieve a strategic consensus that would translate into a

reality the dreams envisioned 50 years ago when the

Charter was signed.