Morocco, 1993

It gives me pleasure, at the outset, to extend to you the

congratulations of the delegation of Morocco on your

election to the Presidency of the forty-eighth session of the

General Assembly, and to express to you our best wishes for

success in the discharge of your important duties. I would

like to assure you of our full cooperation in ensuring the

success of our deliberations.

To the outgoing President, Mr. Stoyan Ganev, I should

like to express our appreciation for the wise manner in

which he conducted the work of our deliberations during the

past session. To our Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros

Boutros-Ghali, we would like to pay a special tribute for his

tireless efforts to uphold the principles of the United Nations

Charter, and to promote international peace and security in

the world’s current difficult circumstances.

I should also like to welcome to our midst the many

new Members who have joined our Organization in recent

months.

As we approach the end of fifth decade since the

establishment of our Organization, it is proper to evaluate its

successes in attaining the goals set by the Conference of San

Francisco in 1945, with a view to maintaining world peace

and security and ensuring development, prosperity and social

justice in a world free from the scourges of war, bigotry and

racism.

Our Organization was built on the ruins of a World

War. It was therefore natural that the effects of that war’s

aftermath left their imprint not only on the United Nations

Charter but also on the rules that govern its work as well as

on its structure.

The rivalry between the two blocs contributed to the

weakening of the effectiveness of the Organization in

addressing international issues. However, to do justice to

our Organization, one cannot but speak of its historic

achievements in liberating people from the yoke of

colonialism and foreign domination, its opening of its forums

to dialogue between all nations, promoting cooperation

between nations and peoples and its working for the

settlement of conflicts by peaceful means.

The end of the cold war, the collapse of what used to

be called the Eastern Bloc and the sudden disintegration of

the Soviet Union, were important and unexpected events of

historic proportions. They transformed the world situation

and altered its parameters. The result was a radical change

in international relations, a profound shift in the balance of

power and the emergence of underlying ethnic and national

extremist trends which were suppressed under the former

rule. Those have brought civil wars, unspeakable tragedies,

suffering and destruction to many countries.

While it has been difficult under such circumstances to

find quick solutions to the old problems of the world as

some would have hoped, new issues have arisen that have

monopolized the attention of the international community,

demonstrating the inadequacy of the means available to the

United Nations and the United Nations inability to keep pace

with the changes on the international scene.

20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

The often-sought intervention by the United Nations in

areas as diverse as the peaceful settlement of conflicts and

the organization and supervision of elections has resulted in

an increase in its volume of work and has justified the call

for the strengthening of the Organization and support for its

work. Consolidating the role of our Organization is of great

importance and enjoys the steady support of my country.

Positive, vital and commendable as it may be, the role

of the Organization remains, nevertheless, of limited impact

and effectiveness because the Organization’s Charter and

structure have not evolved sufficiently and because it lacks

the financial resources that would enable it to meet the

requirements of its international mandates in all their various

aspects.

Those transformations have given rise to new concepts,

notions and priorities, such as preventive diplomacy,

post-conflict peace-building, and brought to the fore such

issues as those of human rights and of intervention on

humanitarian grounds in the course of the ongoing global

debate on what is termed "the new world order" that is in

the making.

Moreover, the Summit meeting of the Security Council,

held in January 1992 in New York, was a testimony to a

common ambition to develop and regulate international

action in such a way as to make it capable of meeting the

requirements of the new situation in the world. As a current

member of the Security Council, Morocco - represented by

His Majesty King Hassan II - took part in that historic

meeting and did not fail to express the sensitivities and

concerns of the Muslim, Arab and African world, and

contribute fully in the formulation of the final declaration.

It is also in this context that the Secretary-General

presented his thoughts and recommendations about

peacemaking and peace-keeping in his report "Agenda for

Peace", which was favorably received by Member States.

We believe that those thoughts, concepts and activities are

a positive endeavour on the whole, but they contain certain

aspects which might prove to be dangerous and even

damaging. It is therefore imperative that those thoughts and

concepts be clarified, with a view to defining their goals

through an all-embracing dialogue between all States. This

would lead to a consensus genuinely reflecting the concerns

of all members of the international community.

It is also necessary, now, to supplement those thoughts

with views and reflections on how to correct the economic

situation which does injustice to the rights of the developing

world, whose economic interests have not been included in

the international agenda.

Nowadays, human rights issues are the subject of

heated debate. Morocco, which firmly believes in the

universal character and the comprehensive nature of those

rights, regards them as a basic pillar of governance, social

justice and civil liberties in any State. However, my country

is equally of the view that the concept of human rights

should be attuned to the values, cultures, traditions and the

differing levels of development of countries, without any

imposition of any particular concept of such rights. In other

words, the political dimension of human rights should not

prevail over the social and economic one, which covers the

basic needs of man including food, clothing, health care and

shelter.

Our constant interest in and tireless efforts towards

maintaining international peace and security and the settling

of conflicts by peaceful means will be futile so long as the

socioeconomic imbalance between the developed and

developing countries continues to increase daily. The

economic crises in the developing world have been greatly

aggravated: unemployment and economic stagnation have

been compounded by persisting problems in international

trade, by foreign debt and by falling prices for raw materials.

Morocco deplores the lack of genuine dialogue between the

North and the South, which has created a situation in which

sub-Saharan Africa claims less than 1 per cent of the world’s

income while the developed countries, with only 15 per cent

of the world’s population, control more than 80 per cent of

world income.

The discussions in international economic forums are

almost exclusively centered on topics of direct concern to

developed countries while the role of developing nations in

the management of the world economy continues to be

almost non-existent. In that respect, we regret that the

request made by the current chairman of the Non-Aligned

Movement to meet with the leaders of the G-7 last July in

Tokyo, to explain the consequences of the present

management of the world economy on the developing

countries, was turned down.

My country is convinced that unless the world economy

is collectively managed in a manner that would take into

account the interests of all countries without exception, it

would be futile to look forward to an era in which global

peace and security may prevail, and in which well-being and

prosperity may be attained by all peoples of the world.

Forty-eighth session - 27 September l993 21

While we concede that the advanced countries too face

a difficult economic situation, we maintain that they still

have the potential and the ability to lend a helping hand to

the developing world.

We also maintain that the time has come for the

developed countries to demonstrate true solidarity with the

developing countries by giving them access to the economic

decision-making process, and by helping them to develop

their economies and improve their social standards. To this

end, the developed countries could liberalize the world

economy, open their markets to the products of the Third

World, increase their investments in developing countries

alleviate the debt-burden of those countries and enhance the

effective transfer of technology to them.

By the same token, we believe it is necessary for world

economic relations to embark upon a new phase of genuine

partnership and shared responsibility, within the context of

economic interdependence.

Such a new approach would prove much more

beneficial to the countries of the North since deterioration of

the economic and social situation in the South would

inevitably have a negative impact on the security, stability

and development of the North.

While calling for a meaningful contribution by countries

of the North to development, the countries of the South

remain mindful of the need for self-dependence. Therefore

most countries of the South have made the necessary

adjustments, strengthened the structures of their economies

and enhanced cooperation among themselves, by using

available forums such as the Group of 77 and the Movement

of Non-Aligned Countries.

Morocco, which has always demonstrated its utmost

readiness to promote South/South cooperation, is still

committed to participate actively in these efforts, in

particular with the African countries. Our keen interest in

Africa stems naturally from solid bonds of common history,

goals and destiny which link us to that continent whose

concerns and ambitions we fully share.

The lack of stability that characterizes the international

economic situation led the African continent to a very

alarming crisis which has been exacerbated by the falling

prices of raw materials, a deterioration in the terms of trade,

the heavy foreign debt-burden and drought.

Despite the adoption by the forty-sixth session of the

General Assembly of a new agenda for the development of

Africa and the new reform programme adopted by the

majority of African countries in conformity with the

recommendations of the international financial institutions,

the situation in our continent remains critical and calls for an

exceptional effort to overcome this crisis.

In this context, Morocco spares no effort to assist many

African countries, for example, by writing off loans,

extending valuable assistance in the areas of health care and

education, and allocating more than 90 per cent of its

international cooperation budget to the assistance of African

countries.

Moreover, Morocco has endeavoured, in consultation

with other African countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean,

to set up, in collaboration with the United Nations and the

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

(FAO), a legal framework and relevant structures to create

multilateral cooperation in the field of fisheries in order to

safeguard the vital interests and national resources of these

countries.

The present is a crucial period of transition in the

history of international relations, which, while it is marked

by new and promising prospects of international cooperation,

is fraught with the danger of the many hotbeds of tension

which proliferate around the world and which give cause for

concern.

The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is in the grip

of a devastating war that irks the world conscience. This

has been the result of the Serbian aggression against the

sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Bosnia and

Herzegovina. Bosnian Serbs especially have not hesitated to

perpetrate the crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, rape, and

the destruction of houses of worship and historical and

cultural monuments in furtherance of their shameful designs,

in violation of the principles and norms of international law.

It is regrettable that the many settlement plans and the

endless meetings have resulted in nothing other than

rewarding the Serbian aggressor and increasing pressure on

the Muslim majority of that country. Having been unjustly

deprived of the legitimate right to self-defence, the Bosnian

Government had to make successive unilateral concessions.

The Kingdom of Morocco cannot but strongly condemn

the Serbian aggression aimed at the dismemberment of the

Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a Member State of the

Organization. It profoundly deplores the inertia of the

international community and the inability of the United

Nations to ensure proper compliance with and

implementation of the principles enshrined in the Charter

and in international law, those principles which have been

repeatedly recalled in resolutions, often adopted under

Chapter VII, by the Security Council.

Somalia has recently experienced a cruel and

destructive civil war which led to a dreadful famine that

decimated tens of thousands of its people. A multilateral

humanitarian rescue operation was launched with the aim of

promoting national reconciliation and restoring the rule of

law and the good functioning of government institutions.

Morocco was one of the first countries to show its

active solidarity with that sisterly African country in the

framework of a multilateral humanitarian mission. My

country sent an important military contingent to alleviate the

suffering of the Somali people. In this context, Morocco

volunteered to set up a complete military hospital in which

more than 100,000 patients have received treatment.

Unfortunately, we have recently seen the situation in

Somalia change as a result of deadly confrontations that

have claimed numerous lives. While deploring these tragic

developments and condemning these reprehensible acts, we

remain convinced that the solution to the Somali crisis

hinges on continued negotiation and dialogue between all the

parties, with the assistance of the United Nations, in order to

achieve a genuine national reconciliation that would ensure

peace, security and prosperity for our brethren in Somalia.

Angola remains in the grip of a destructive civil war

despite the peace agreement between the Government of

Angola and the National Union for the Total Independence

of Angola (UNITA), which agreement was supported by the

international community and the United Nations

Organization. Inspired by its solidarity with the Angolan

people, and determined to promote peace and security in this

part of Africa, the Kingdom of Morocco, on several

occasions has assisted the two parties in resolving

outstanding problems through dialogue and negotiation. As

a member of the Security Council, Morocco has voted in

favour of all resolutions on this issue in the hope that the

two parties would implement the Abidjan protocol, prepared

with the help of the United States of America, the Russian

Federation and Portugal, so that an end could be put to the

cycle of war and destruction, and thus allow Angola to usher

in an era of peace, security and stability.

In South Africa, the cycle of violence continues to

claim innocent victims. This must not slow down or side-

track the democratic process or the current efforts aimed at

transforming South Africa into a democratic, united and non-

racial State. It is a source of satisfaction that the process of

constitutional reform is proceeding despite the bloody acts

of provocation perpetrated by extremists from various sides.

Morocco, which has always encouraged dialogue

between the parties concerned, wants to express its

satisfaction at the establishment of a transitional Executive

Council. We are hopeful that the parties will continue the

dialogue and the process of reconciliation.

Moreover, Morocco supports the appeal of Mr. Nelson

Mandela, made before the Special Committee against

Apartheid on 24 September 1993, for the lifting of the

economic sanctions against South Africa. We are convinced

that such an action will result in alleviating the economic

burdens borne by the people of South Africa and will thus

contribute to resolving their internal and external problems

and give new momentum to the settlement process.

Two weeks ago, the Middle East entered a new era as

a result of the mutual recognition between the Palestine

Liberation Organization and Israel, and the signing of an

agreement allowing for a regime of self-rule, initially in the

Gaza Strip and Jericho.

Those two historic events have had a great impact on

the situation in the Middle East, as this is the first time that

the Palestinian and the Israeli sides have officially and

publicly expressed their willingness to coexist and to

recognize one another.

Despite the strong impact of those two events, Morocco

believes that the path to a genuine, comprehensive settlement

of the Arab-Israeli conflict is still long and that patience and

perseverance are required in order to circumvent the many

obstacles and difficulties that beset the process.

This first decisive step should be strengthened and

should be accompanied by a good measure of progress in the

other bilateral negotiations. A real solution in the Middle

East can be achieved only if the momentum for peace is

allowed to run its full course and reach its goal with the

consent of all the peoples of the region.

To shoulder these responsibilities at this crucial and

historical juncture, it is necessary to mobilize all efforts and

to bring together all people of goodwill in order to achieve

a just and comprehensive settlement that would be

acceptable to all parties. Such a settlement should restore to

the Palestinian people their rights, including their right to an

Forty-eighth session - 27 September l993 23

independent State on their soil with Jerusalem as its capital.

It should also ensure the withdrawal of Israel from the other

occupied Arab territories in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, in

conformity with Security Council resolutions 242 (1967),

338 (1973) and 425 (1978).

Only then can the Middle East, afflicted by war,

violence and tragedies for more than half a century, enter

upon an era of peace, security, disarmament, stability and

cooperation between all the States of the region; this would

bring about development, welfare and prosperity.

In the Maghreb subregion, the Kingdom of Morocco

firmly believes in the principles that formed the foundation

of the Arab Maghreb Union; we adhere to the goals of the

Union. We are firmly convinced that the future of the

region and the prosperity of its peoples, linked as they are

by history, language, religion and a common destiny, depend

on the achievement of that unity.

The Arab Maghreb Union has recently encountered

some difficulties and obstacles. This, in our view, is only

natural. However, we are determined to overcome such

difficulties and to go forward in order to fulfil the ambition

of the Maghreb people to build an effective structure of

cooperation and solidarity for themselves.

In the area of relations with the rest of the international

community, Morocco and the other members of the Arab

Maghreb Union view with special importance their relations

with countries of the European Community on the one hand,

and with its member States on an individual or

Mediterranean basis on the other. The results achieved

within the framework of dialogue and cooperation among

countries bordering the Mediterranean are encouraging. We

hope therefore that the current difficulties, which have

prevented the resumption of that dialogue, will be overcome

soon in order to promote a balanced regional cooperation

between the northern and southern flanks of the Western

Mediterranean.

With regard to the so-called question of the Western

Sahara, the Settlement Plan is being implemented, and the

Secretary-General continues to bring all new developments

to the attention of the Security Council. The Kingdom of

Morocco, which has always cooperated with the Secretary-

General and striven to facilitate his mission, has given its

consent in principle to the compromise he proposed in the

interpretation and application of the criteria for voter

eligibility. We are confident that the Secretary-General will

not fail to inform the Security Council of Morocco’s sincere

and loyal cooperation and our constant readiness to

implement the provisions of resolution 809 (1993) in all its

aspects. It was in the same spirit of cooperation and

reconciliation that Morocco agreed to the Laayoune meeting

of last July where Sahrawis, in particular, from within the

territory and from the region of Tindouf, took part and

initiated a brotherly and positive dialogue.

A close examination of conditions prevailing in the

world as we stand on the threshold of the next century

would clearly show that the strivings of humanity in the

areas of world peace, justice and welfare fall short of the

hopes it set out to realize and that the challenges in the way

of meeting those goals are still difficult and numerous.

What is most needed now is a new code of conduct for

international relations, a code that would take into account

the concerns of all peoples and countries of the world,

restore balance to international dealings and bring the

principles of justice and partnership to the management

24 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

of world affairs. We hold the view that the United Nations

is the most suitable forum for discussions on this issue and

for attaining our common goals.