North Macedonia, 1998

Allow me first of all to congratulate you,

Mr. Opertti, on your election as President of the General

Assembly at its fifty-third session and, at the same time, to

wish you success in the performance of your important

function.

Your predecessor, Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko,

successfully headed the fifty-second session. I am

convinced that, as a distinguished Latin American politician

of great experience and energy, you will also make an

outstanding contribution to the successful outcome of this

session.

Allow me also to express our deep appreciation to

Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his leadership and to

extend to him our readiness for full cooperation.

It is my special pleasure to address this Assembly on

behalf of the Republic of Macedonia. My country managed

to avoid the turmoil of the war on the former Yugoslav

territory and to achieve its independence peacefully. We

also managed not only to maintain our internal peace and

stability but also to produce peace and stability in the

troubled and volatile region of the Balkans. Under much

more difficult conditions than those prevailing in the other

countries in transition, we managed not only to finalize the

reforms of the political and economic systems, but also to

democratize society, to build the institutions of the state

of law and to put into full function the mechanisms of

market economy. In addition, we managed to emerge

from the deep financial and economic crisis resulting

from the high price we had to pay for these radical

reforms, and, above all, from the losses we suffered due

to the war in the region and the sanctions against our

neighbour, Yugoslavia.

According to the last report of the World Bank, the

Republic of Macedonia, among all the countries in

transition, today shares first place with Estonia in the

results on macroeconomic plans and is in fourth place in

the field of structural reforms. Over a number of years,

my country has had a stable currency and an annual

inflation rate of about 5 per cent, and this year has had an

industrial production growth rate of over 10 per cent. The

Republic of Macedonia, through its policy of equally

good relations with all its neighbours, has managed to

establish outstanding relations with almost all of them,

particularly with the Republic of Slovenia, the Republic

of Croatia, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the

Republic of Turkey, the Hellenic Republic and the

Republic of Albania. It has also managed to become one

of the most active countries in all of the regional

initiatives in South-Eastern Europe.

Having committed itself to full integration into the

European and Euro-Atlantic structures, the Republic of

Macedonia is investing great efforts to enhance its

relations with the European Union and to fully integrate

itself into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO), thus contributing to the establishment of the

new Euro-Atlantic security architecture and to the united

Europe of the twenty-first century.

The Republic of Macedonia has achieved all of this

in a region in which, as is well known, we cannot yet

speak of lasting peace and stability, due to the crisis in

Bosnia, the crisis in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo,

the recent events in Albania and the stalled processes of

democratization in some of the neighbouring countries.

Other factors are the threats posed by illicit drug-

trafficking, money-laundering, the proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction and small arms,

transnational and local terrorism and so forth.

These are only some of the issues that burden the

overall situation in the region I come from, but these are

also issues that burden citizens worldwide. We still live

in a period characterized by uncertainty and

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unpredictability. Local wars and ethnic conflicts continue.

The threat of weapons of mass destruction is increasingly

alarming. Organized crime, illicit drug-trafficking and

terrorism trouble the whole world. Financial and economic

crises have become more frequent than ever, as have

environmental disasters.

These complex issues, together with the issue of

globalization, which marks the end of this century and will

prevail in the coming one, as well as the issue of the

reform of our Organization, are the main issues of debate

at this session. That is why my country, the Republic of

Macedonia, attaches such enormous importance to this

session, with the expectation that the decisions to be

adopted in those respects will improve our mutual

cooperation and will strengthen the role of the United

Nations in the spirit of its Charter.

In the twenty-first century, our Organization will face

a lot of new challenges, which will differ from those we

have dealt with during the past decades. The appropriate

response to these challenges requires even further

globalization of cooperation, through the United Nations,

and we therefore should, in due time, do everything

possible so that it will be prepared to tackle them.

We believe that the Secretary-General?s reform

programme is an excellent basis for this. These reforms are

in the interest of all Member States, and we therefore fully

endorse them. We believe that they should bring about

substantial improvement in the work of all the bodies

within the United Nations family.

In that regard, we are in favour of the eventual

increase in the number of permanent and non-permanent

members of the Security Council, derived from and based

upon real political relations among Member States.

The processes of globalization that have engulfed our

planet are irreversible. They enhance our possibilities for

confronting international threats jointly, but they should

also provide benefits for all participating countries. The

United Nations is the only Organization which can define

the principles, norms and rules, and which can give

guarantees that both the obligations and the benefits will be

shared by all members of the international community.

Only in this way can we, all together, avoid the eventual

negative effects of these processes of globalization.

As a modest contribution in that regard, the Republic

of Macedonia has submitted a draft resolution for this

session on the prevention of marginalization of small and

weakened economies of developing countries and of

economies in transition.

The international community is witnessing many

new crises and conflicts, which most frequently turn into

violence of an unprecedented intensity and fierceness. The

United Nations has all along been engaged in their

prevention and management. The lessons learned from the

crisis of the region I come from have indicated that our

Organization, in dealing with them, needs to take the

following steps: first, concentrate on their root causes;

secondly, concentrate on early warning; thirdly, activate

preventive diplomacy for peaceful settlement of these

disputes before violence arises; and fourthly, deploy

preventive forces in the neighbouring regions or countries

to prevent their eventual spillover.

In 1992, when the war in Bosnia was spreading,

endangering the regions to the south, as well as my

country, which was not yet a Member of the United

Nations, we requested the deployment of a preventive

mission along our northern and western borders. The

Security Council took a positive decision, and, as a result,

the first preventive United Nations mission, the United

Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP), was

born.

I avail myself of this opportunity to express the

gratitude of my people and my country for this wise

decision of the Security Council, to the troop-contributing

countries — the United States of America, Norway,

Sweden, Finland and Denmark — and to all the other

countries that have contributed to the stabilization of the

situation along our northern and western borders.

As members know, the UNPREDEP mission has all

along also acted as a deterrent to possible conflicts in the

region. This most successful preventive mission has

always enjoyed the support of our citizens, as well as of

my Government. We are particularly pleased that such

positive assessments are contained in all the reports of

Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

We are convinced that last year?s crisis in Albania

and the crisis in Kosovo, which has particularly

intensified since the beginning of this year, would have

had much more negative consequences on peace and

stability in the region had the UNPREDEP mission not

stayed in the Republic of Macedonia or had its stay been

terminated last year, as some had proposed. Therefore, I

would like to express our gratitude to all the States

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members of the Security Council that adopted the resolution

extending its stay.

I would also like to point to the need for the

UNPREDEP mission to stay in the Republic of Macedonia

until the situation in neighbouring Albania stabilizes and the

Kosovo crisis is peacefully settled. As an immediate

neighbour, we are most interested in this and therefore,

through our constructive policy, we are trying to make our

own contribution to the efforts of the international

community to resolve the Kosovo crisis.

Even though we see the solution in the framework of

the Republic of Serbia and within the internationally

recognized borders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,

it is well known that conditions have not yet been created

for a lasting settlement. Therefore, we believe that the

interim solution proposed by the American diplomat

Christopher Hill and the Contact Group will lead towards

resolving this crisis. The sooner this temporary solution is

accepted and implemented, the sooner will conditions be

created for reaching a lasting settlement of the crisis in

Kosovo, as well as for eliminating this threat to the stability

of the region.

Should this not happen, as an immediate neighbour we

are most concerned by possible new waves of refugees,

which could destabilize not only the countries of the region,

but also those beyond. For the time being, this crisis has

not significantly affected the peace and stability of the

Republic of Macedonia, in which there lives a considerable

Albanian minority. However, all of our citizens, regardless

of their national or religious identity, are concerned by a

possible deepening of the crisis.

Though some initial steps have lately been made

towards settling the Kosovo crisis and broader conditions

have been established to that end — such as, for example,

the decision of the Defence Ministers of the Partnership for

Peace and of States members of the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO) from South-East Europe, to establish

the first multinational brigade for peace support operations;

or the positive results of such regional initiatives as the

Central European Initiative (CEI), the Royaumont Initiative,

the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), the Initiative

of Cooperation of South-East Europe (SECI), and the

process on security, stability and cooperation in South-

Eastern Europe — recent events in Kosovo, in which a

number of citizens were massacred, will very negatively

affect the overall security situation. We condemn all such

uncivilized acts and underline that this is not the way to

overcome the disputes or to settle them peacefully.

Therefore, we call for the full mobilization and

harmonization of the activities of the international

community, the Organization for Security and

Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union and

NATO, as well as our Organization, the United Nations,

since we believe that the possibilities for a peaceful

solution have not yet been exhausted. In that regard, my

country has invested great efforts to make a constructive

contribution. As is known, at previous sessions of the

General Assembly, three resolutions for the development

of good-neighbourly relations in South-East Europe that

were proposed by the Republic of Macedonia were

adopted unanimously.

At this session, we have submitted a proposal for the

adoption of a new draft resolution on the prevention of

the violent disintegration of States. I hope that this draft

resolution will also be adopted by acclamation. By this,

the Republic of Macedonia is making a concrete

contribution and giving strong support to the efforts of the

United Nations to establish early warning of eventual

conflicts, achieve political settlements of outstanding

disputes, and avoid their short-, medium- and long-term

consequences.

In the period between the main parts of the fifty-

second and fifty-third sessions of the General Assembly,

our Organization undertook a great number of activities

to resolve the current and to prevent the outbreak of new

crises. The measures that could greatly contribute to

preventing such violent conflicts certainly include the

prosecution of war criminals and the punishment of the

criminal acts and atrocities they have committed.

The successful completion of the Conference on the

creation of the International Criminal Court is of

historical importance. The Republic of Macedonia has

fully supported the outcome of the Rome Conference, as

well as the Statute that was adopted by the majority of

the attending countries, including my own. Now, the

General Assembly should adopt the necessary decisions

to allow the Court to assume its full functions.

In that regard, no less important is the fact, that

within a very short period of time, 40 countries, including

the Republic of Macedonia, have ratified the Ottawa

Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,

Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on

Their Destruction. Thus, the Republic of Macedonia has

firmly reaffirmed its commitment to the full elimination

of anti-personnel landmines, just as it has, by investing

enormous efforts, made a great contribution to preventing

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the proliferation of the small arms that abounded in the

region following last year?s crisis in Albania.

Human rights, democracy and the rule of law have

proven to be the basic preconditions for the promotion of

peace, security and the sustainable development of States.

Since the very first days of its independence, the Republic

of Macedonia has committed itself to the establishment of

these preconditions.

Today, as we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we feel the need

to particularly emphasize that the adoption of the

declaration on the defenders of human rights will not only

create new responsibilities for all the States Members of

our Organization, but will also encourage all the activists

who work for the protection of human rights throughout the

world.

As a country whose Constitution abolishes the death

penalty, we support the draft protocols to the Convention

for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against

Women and the Convention against Torture, as well as a

broad scope of projects and programmes in the field of

human rights, the rule of law and so on.

Allow me to conclude by reaffirming the firm

commitment of the Republic of Macedonia to the objectives

and principles of the United Nations Charter. We are a

small country that struggles for progress and development

within a still troubled and unstable region. Perhaps that is

why we so strongly feel the threats and the challenges that

are common to the whole world. Thus, each and every

State Member of the United Nations, regardless of size and

human potential, should make its contribution to decreasing

the risks of these threats and should also enjoy the benefits

of the current processes of globalization. The survival of

each State, of each people, of the whole planet depends on

the common solidarity among all of us and on our common

responsibility for future generations that could be united

only here, in our common Organization, the United Nations.