Kyrgyzstan, 1994

I wish to congratulate the President on his

appointment to this highly responsible and important post.

My delegation will work constructively with him during the

course of this, the forty-ninth session of the General

Assembly of the United Nations.

Since the end of the Second World War, the fiftieth

anniversary of which we shall be celebrating next year, the

world has been engaged in peace-building. It has been a

long road, and it has not been without its dramatic

moments. Over the past half century the world has come

to the brink of nuclear war many times. Now, with the end

of the cold war, with the dissolution of the bipolar world,

a new challenge has arisen in the shape of a series of wars

and conflicts based on ethnic and religious intolerance that

have exploded in many different areas of the world.

In his report "An Agenda for Peace" the Secretary

General spoke of the concentration of efforts towards

preventive diplomacy, of steps for increasing international

confidence-building and achieving early recognition of

conflict situations. Such measures have taken on special

importance in our countries with the fall of

totalitarianism, because we have inherited many long-

standing issues of conflict that had previously been

hidden and suppressed by a regime of terror in the

conditions of that time.

The United Nations, in our view, could play a

leadership role in the study of typical conflict situations.

It could systematize the approaches, principles and paths

for the resolution of traditional issues of dispute such as

border issues, the sharing or allocation of water and other

natural resources, the self-determination of nations and

territorial integrity, and the protection of minorities on the

basis of ethnic, religious, linguistic and other differences.

This would allow the United Nations to establish a legal

basis for decisions that would help decrease the potential

for new conflicts and aid in the resolution of existing

problems. Only by following the highest authority of

law, and only on the basis of international law, can we

weave a solid fabric of peace throughout the planet, in all

of its smallest corners, no matter how remote or

provincial.

Violence and intolerance among people have led to

unending war and bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia.

The tragedy of Bosnia poses a challenge to all

humankind. Fifty years ago the nations of this world,

having united, put an end to nazism and genocide. Why

then are we now moving so slowly in the face of the

violence that is obviously based on ethnic and religious

discrimination and that is reverberating throughout the

planet? We stand for a political settlement of conflicts.

We call for both sides to put an end to the bloody

slaughter. In our view, the recommendations of the

Contact Group provide a way out of this crisis and hope

that peace can be restored in the heart of Europe.

We greatly value the efforts of the Secretary-

General, his Mission and the Observer Group of the

Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe

(CSCE) to resolve issues peacefully in Tajikistan. We

welcome the recently signed cease-fire in Tehran, in

accordance with which hostilities have temporarily ceased

and political prisoners and prisoners of war are being

released. We have great hope for the gradual end of this

crisis and for the unification of the Tajik peoples, who

have experienced more than enough sorrow and suffering,

for the return of all refugees to their homes and for the

restoration of peace with our neighbours. We express this

hope now, before the coming winter, and call upon all

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countries to render vitally important humanitarian aid to

Tajikistan.

We are following with great concern and alarm the

situation in Afghanistan and welcome the efforts towards

settlement. The restoration of peace in that country and the

achievement of national reconciliation would bring long-

awaited peace to the Afghan people, who have suffered so

much, and drastically improve the situation in our region of

the world. That region is exhausted from gunfire and war.

It is yearning for trade and a return to tilling the soil.

Notwithstanding the tremendous difficulties inherent

in our search for peace and accord in that country, we urge

the world not to give in either to moral or to donor fatigue.

It is not possible to dodge responsibilities during this trying

period because the deadly conflict in this country has been

brought about by participation on many different sides.

Afghanistan has a plethora of weapons. The country is

prey to a non-stop and intensive arms race. Hope for peace

can be guaranteed only if the international community

devotes its unwavering attention and political will to

unravelling the knot of the Afghan conflict.

That is why my country has consistently called for

completion and effective implementation of the Register of

Conventional Weapons. We support the initiative of the

United States announced by President Clinton on the

ratification of and support for General Assembly resolution

48/75 K of 16 December 1993 on a moratorium on the

export of land-mines.

The Kyrgyz Republic has consistently stood for a

comprehensive, effective reduction in conventional arms.

We are actively and diligently working on the conversion

of our defence industry to civilian production. Kyrgyzstan,

as a non-nuclear State, signed the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and advocates

transforming it into an agreement of unlimited duration.

We welcome the efforts of all countries - and first and

foremost the United States of America and France - to

reach a consensus on the issue of a comprehensive nuclear-

test ban.

We support the initiatives put forward by President

Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan on confidence-building measures

in Asia, and we envisage our region of Central Asia,

located as it is between two nuclear Powers, as an area free

of nuclear weapons. That would be our Central Asian

treaty.

Our world, so full of anxiety and so weary, believes

that hope for peace is not an illusion. I recall with great

excitement the unseasonably warm day of 13 September

1993 at the White House in Washington when, after many

years of conflict, a declaration of principles on Palestinian

self-rule in Gaza and Jericho was signed by the Israeli

Government and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

It is with great satisfaction and happiness that we see

together with us in this Hall representatives of the

Government of South Africa that was elected on a

democratic basis. Let us stock up on patience. We can

achieve breakthroughs and visible results on the difficult

path to peace and concord only if we do not give in to

fatalism.

United Nations peace-keeping efforts are achieving

significant success in settling many of the conflicts of our

time. We know that 75 countries are participating in 17

United Nations Missions overseeing the holding and

monitoring of elections, rendering humanitarian assistance

during disasters and restoring what has been destroyed, as

well as ensuring a United Nations military and police

presence. The issue of creating reserve peace-keeping

forces has now been raised. From this rostrum we hear

the commitment of dozens of countries to peace-keeping

operations. We need the blue helmets of peace, not the

mercenary black helmets of death which have recently

participated with increasing frequency in conflict zones

around the world.

Fully aware that peace-keeping operations are an

important factor in the future new world order, my

country, with its highly qualified doctors, nurses,

engineers and rescue workers, would like to participate in

peace-keeping operations. We accept and support the

proposals that many countries have made here at the

General Assembly during discussions of peace-keeping

issues with regard to the need and opportunities for

conducting training of military and civilian personnel on

both a multilateral and a bilateral basis. Such possibilities

are also open to us as participants in the Partnership for

Peace programme of the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO).

As a country experiencing a period of emergency

and in need of immediate assistance because of natural

disasters and social hardships, we warmly support the

proposal of Argentina’s President Menem that a civilian

service be created to provide immediate humanitarian

assistance under the auspices of the United Nations.

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Development is the main problem facing young

democratic societies. Thirty years’ experience of North-

South collaboration has taught us, the new 1990s generation

of independent countries, instructive lessons. It is easy for

our achievements and our real advantages to become lost in

the picture of the protracted drop in production levels and

the destruction of the social infrastructure. The people of

Kyrgyzstan are grateful to the United Nations Development

Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization

(WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization (UNESCO) and other institutions in the

United Nations family that have sought to help us at this

difficult time.

In the face of a sharp increase in drug trafficking,

interwoven with transnational organized crime, first in our

region and then through Russia to Europe and other

continents, we need energetic and massive measures to

block the drug-distribution routes and destroy production.

The United Nations International Drug Control Programme

has become truly critical in our region. As a whole, we

would like to see greater action and coordination of the

work of the United Nations specialized institutions with the

new States, both at their headquarters and in their regional

offices.

It is noteworthy that not only traditional developed

countries, but also developing countries, which bear the

burden of their own numerous economic and social

problems, have helped in the establishment of the newly

independent States and their entry into the world order.

And this has particular significance. We are firmly

convinced that the timely rendering of full-fledged,

effective assistance to us - countries with transitional

economies that must now choose their own paths at this

difficult time - will help us to stand more quickly on our

own two feet, form the foundation for a market economy

and develop democratic foundations for society. We

ourselves will then be able to render speedier assistance to

the more needy. We support such a policy of reaching out

towards solidarity, mutual support and collaboration.

Bearing in mind the close collaboration of countries

with transitional economies with international financial and

economic institutions, precise coordination and deeper

interaction of the work of the United Nations and the

Bretton Woods institutions are becoming increasingly

necessary.

The Kyrgyz Republic welcomes and shares the

objectives and fundamental parameters of development set

forth in the preliminary report of the Secretary-General,

"An Agenda for Development". These are peace,

economic growth, the environment, justice and

democracy.

The recent World Conference on Population and

Development in Cairo and future Conferences on social

development and the improvement of the status of women

testify to the world’s deep concern about the situation of

basic human needs at the turn of the next century. If

human rights are all-inclusive, universal and inalienable,

then these rights also pertain to all women and children

on Earth. The improvement of the status of women is

key to resolving vital social problems such as those

involving population, education and health care. In other

words, it is the most important issue on the eve of the

twenty-first century for an agenda for humanity.

In my country, we will fully support and are ready

to cooperate with the newly appointed United Nations

High Commissioner for Human Rights. We in

Kyrgyzstan, a country in which over 80 ethnicities reside,

seek to create equal and just conditions for all of our

citizens. There are no restrictions on the development of

culture, the arts, education or media in the languages of

all ethnic groups. Along with an increase in mosques, the

number of Orthodox and Protestant churches is growing.

Committed to ideas of friendship and concord, we are

consistently working on programmes and measures to halt

migration from our country and to preserve the present

multi-ethnic composition of society. On the basis of the

Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to

National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities

adopted at the forty-seventh session of the General

Assembly, my country, together with the Russian

Federation, cosponsored a CIS convention on the rights of

ethnic minorities, which is currently open for ratification

to all other Commonwealth members.

Democracy in my country is very fragile. Political

pluralism, freedom of the press and speech, and adherence

to human rights and fundamental freedoms in the

Republic are not accidental gifts from above but genuine

values for which a real struggle is being waged in society

- the struggle between openness and isolation, blind force

and respect for the law, totalitarian ways and commitment

to freedom. But the people of Kyrgyzstan, headed by

President Askar Akaev, having made its choice three

years ago, firmly and unwaveringly stand for democracy

and a market economy.

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A tectonic political, social, and economic shift is

taking place across the enormous Eurasian land mass. The

success of the present transformations in Russia strengthens

our own awareness of the irrevocability of the choice of the

democratic way. Kyrgyzstan, like other nations of the

Commonwealth of Independent States, is deeply committed

to democracy, the principles of freedom and independence,

and the philosophy and spirit of the creation of peace. My

ancient people, yet still a young nation, like the "Manas" -

a Kyrgyz epic poem of a million lines - the millennium of

which we will celebrate in 1995, is undergoing a

renaissance. We realize that a long and thorny path awaits

us. But the most important thing on that path is peace,

which is the same for everyone on this Earth and is

indivisible.