Kyrgyzstan, 1997

Allow me, on behalf of the Government of the

Kyrgyz Republic and its people, to congratulate my

colleague the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine,

Mr. Udovenko, on his election to the high office of

President of the fifty-second session of the General

Assembly, and to wish him success in his endeavours. May

I also express our feelings of respect for his country, which

is playing an important role in resolving regional and global

issues.

I would also like to express our heartfelt gratitude to

the previous President of the General Assembly, the

representative of the friendly Malaysian people,

Ambassador Razali Ismail, for his active and dynamic

efforts in establishing constructive dialogue on ways to

reform the United Nations.

Like the entire international community, Kyrgyzstan

expects genuine progress regarding the complex issue of

the reform of the United Nations to come out of the

present session. We are confident that the session will be

able to cope with the problems facing the Organization

today during this difficult and complicated period. The

President and the Government of my country fully

support the efforts of the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi

Annan, to enhance the efficiency of the United Nations,

and his ability to respond sensitively and adequately to

the challenges of a rapidly changing world. We are

confident that a renewed United Nations will truly

embody the principles and purposes proclaimed in its

Charter, ensuring the harmony of the interests of all its

Members in the name of peace and progress. We are

ready to support all proposals that promote that goal.

Regarding the reform of the Security Council, the

issue of improving its methods of work is no less

important than the question of enlarging its membership.

Kyrgyzstan believes that these questions must be

considered together. We continue to support the proposal

for permanent membership in the Council for Japan and

Germany. However, in our view, the permanent members

of the Security Council should also include one

representative each from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Mankind is now on the eve of a new millennium,

and the changes taking place are altering the image of

mankind and shifting the emphasis in the models for

understanding and explaining our world. The collapse of

a bipolar world has provided us an opportunity to focus

efforts on resolving the issues of poverty, health care,

education, economic development and democracy. We are

all, however, still facing the threat of local and regional

conflicts, international terrorism, organized crime, illegal

trafficking in drugs and weapons, the proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction and the deterioration of the

state of the environment. All these negative aspects of

human activity threaten the global trend towards

strengthening peace and progress, undermine the fragile

new democracies, wear down the strength of the

developing countries and generally threaten all our efforts

focused on building a safer and better world.

The period after the achievement of independence

was decisive for Kyrgyzstan, in the context of the

formation of national statehood and of new social and

economic ties. The country is actively seeking ways and

means to harmoniously integrate itself into the

international community. Clear successes have already

been achieved on this thorny path in strengthening

10

democratic institutions, radical reform of the economy of

the country, improving the means for achieving inter-ethnic

agreement, enhancing tolerance and ensuring human rights.

The leadership of the country is also concentrating on

those domestic and international issues which must be

developed on a permanent and positive basis for the well-

being of the population of Kyrgyzstan.

Our country was the first of the newly independent

States to draw up and adopt a national plan of action for

environmental protection. In the light of the implementation

of the decisions of the Rio Conference, Kyrgyzstan is now

carrying out a country project, Capacity 21, which consists

of three major components: coordination of and carrying

out ecological studies, stable management of water

resources and economic growth and social development.

Through an edict of President Akayev, a national strategy

has been adopted for sustainable human development which

recognizes man, and his harmonious existence with nature,

as the highest priority. Kyrgyzstan was the first country in

the region to draw up a “concept for ecological security”.

The Declaration adopted by the conference in Rio

ranks mountainous ecological systems among those

particularly vulnerable to natural and man-made impacts. It

is universally recognized that peoples living in mountainous

regions bear far heavier social and economic burdens than

those who live in plains.

In the light of these factors and circumstances and also

on the basis of the decisions of the Global Environment

Facility, our country held an international conference on

problems of mountain ecosystems. The participants in the

conference put forward a proposal to proclaim an

international year of the mountains, a proposal which was

actively supported by President Akayev in his message to

the delegates to the mountain forum and in his letter to the

Secretary-General of the United Nations.

At the regular session of the Economic and Social

Council in July this year, in Geneva, a resolution

proclaiming International Year of Mountains, sponsored by

44 countries, was adopted by consensus. The resolution

contains a request to the Secretary-General to present to the

regular session of the Economic and Social Council in

1998, after consultations with Governments and with the

relevant international, regional and non-governmental

organizations, a report on the desirability of proclaiming the

International Year of Mountains and other measures to

ensure the sustainable development of mountainous

countries.

I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to

Governments and, above all, to the other sponsors to

submit the relevant information for incorporation into a

complete and comprehensive report on this question by

the Secretary-General. I hope the General Assembly will

in turn adopt a consensus decision on this initiative.

At the same time, we believe that it is possible, with

support from Governments, to raise the question of

drawing up a global programme of action to ensure the

sustainable development of countries with mountainous

regions, similar to the programme being carried out for

small island developing countries.

There can be no doubt that the economic gap

between the rich developed countries and the developing

world has widened over recent years. The poorest

countries are not in a position to take off economically or

socially and are continuing to lose the ties that enable

them to participate in the world economy. We can assume

that if this trend continues, their numbers will continue to

grow, and this represents a serious threat to all human

development. We need to halt that trend. In this context,

in the view of the experts, the most promising approaches

are to increase investments in human resources to

encourage the implementation of ecologically clean and

effective technologies and to reform price structures.

In our view, it is precisely in these areas that United

Nations activities, in new conditions, should be stepped

up in order to promote economic and social progress. We

support the efforts of the Secretary-General to promote

stable and sustainable development.

Supporting peace and security is the highest priority

task of the United Nations. We place great store by the

United Nations peacekeeping activities and pay due

tribute to the courage and selflessness of United Nations

personnel working in regions of conflict. The efforts of

the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan,

headed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-

General, Mr. Gerd Merrem, and the Collective

Peacekeeping Forces of the Commonwealth of

Independent States (CIS), culminated successfully in

Moscow on 27 June 1997 with the signing of the General

Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National

Accord in Tajikistan, which opened the way for the

country’s transition from war to reconstruction and

rehabilitation.

As a representative of one of the States that is a

guarantor of peace in Tajikistan, I am gratified to note my

11

country’s involvement in this event. The mediation efforts

of Kyrgyzstan, and of President Akayev himself, helped

bring about the important agreement in May this year that

laid the way for the General Agreement, namely, the

signing of the Protocol on Political Questions. However, as

the events in August demonstrated, peace in Tajikistan is

still extremely fragile and its survival depends, first and

foremost, on the Tajik parties themselves and how faithful

they are to the commitments they have made. We are

convinced that our Tajik friends will be able to see this

through.

The prospects for peace-building in Tajikistan depend

to a significant extent on the situation along the Tajik-

Afghan border. The armed conflict in Afghanistan is of the

greatest concern to the States of the Central Asian region;

it fosters the illegal production and trafficking of drugs and

is prompting the massive flow of refugees to neighbouring

countries. The President and Government of Kyrgyzstan are

firmly convinced that there can be only one solution to the

Afghan conflict, namely, a political solution. The problem

can be solved with the political will of the Afghan parties

above all and assistance from neighbouring States that have

an influence in the region.

We have not abandoned hope regarding the

organization of direct inter-Afghan negotiations under the

auspices of the United Nations to discuss conditions for a

ceasefire and subsequent measures to bring about national

reconciliation. In November 1996, President Akayev put

forward an initiative to hold these negotiations in Bishkek.

Subsequently, this proposal was repeated at meetings in

New York of top officials and experts on Afghanistan.

Building on this initiative, in August the President of

Kyrgyzstan appealed to the parties to the conflict and Heads

of State and Government concerned.

Kyrgyzstan, which does not share a border with

Afghanistan and has no interest aside from ensuring

regional security, considers the organization of inter-Afghan

negotiations under United Nations auspices an integral part

of its peaceful policy of good-neighbourly relations and

cooperation. Kyrgyzstan is ready to play the impartial role

of mediator and make its good offices available to ensure

a peaceful settlement of this problem.

Pursuant to its peaceful policy, Kyrgyzstan has been

actively promoting in the United Nations since 1995 the

idea of establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central

Asia, as reflected in a number of working papers of the

1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to

the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,

the Preparatory Committee of the Conference of Parties

to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons to be held in the year 2000 and the

Disarmament Commission. We are firmly convinced that

the creation of nuclear-weapon-free zones, which is an

important confidence-building measure and a positive

backdrop to the disarmament process, is helping

strengthen peace and security in the region and, in the

final analysis, throughout the world.

With the entry into force of the Treaties of Pelindaba

and Bangkok, more than 1.7 billion people will be living

in zones free of nuclear weapons. Together with

Antarctica, this territory will cover practically the entire

southern hemisphere. It is essential that we do all we can

to support and promote the establishment of nuclear-

weapon-free zones. Here, above all, we are hoping for the

understanding and support of nuclear-weapon States. At

the international conference this September on the

establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones, held in

Tashkent, Kyrgyzstan proposed the convening of an

advisory meeting of the five Central Asian States, the five

nuclear-weapon States that are permanent members of the

Security Council, and representatives of the United

Nations to discuss practical measures to make this idea a

reality. The conference approved the proposal.

Kyrgyzstan is actively participating in peacekeeping

activities. The Collective Peacekeeping Forces of CIS in

Tajikistan includes one of our battalions. Kyrgyz military

personnel in the Central Asian peacekeeping battalion

took part in the joint exercises held within the framework

of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

programme Partnership for Peace. Kyrgyzstan is also a

member of the United Nations Special Committee on

Peacekeeping Operations. We are also interested in

training an international peace force, military observers

and civilian personnel so that they can participate in

peacekeeping operations. I would like to take advantage

of this opportunity to ask the United Nations and the

donor countries to give us as much assistance as possible

in this area.

In conclusion, I should like to say that this is a

decisive session for the United Nations. I should like to

express the hope that the interests of individual countries

and regions can be reconciled and that they will not

prevail over responsibility for the fate of our common

Organization. On this positive note, I should like to end

my statement.

12