Republic of the Congo, 1994

At this forty-ninth session of the General

Assembly of the United Nations, the African continent has

every right to feel honoured in this great body. Through

the brilliant election of its President, our Assembly has paid

a tribute to the merits and the qualities of a great African

diplomat. I would add that above and beyond the

recognition so richly deserved by his country, Côte

d’Ivoire, for its contribution to peace, we also find in his

election a posthumous tribute to its founder, President

Houphouët Boigny, that unforgettable monument of

modern-day Africa. I would like to extend to our President

the warmest congratulations of the Congolese delegation

and to avail myself of this opportunity to pay a well-

deserved tribute to his predecessor, His Excellency Mr.

Samuel Insanally, Ambassador of Guyana, who served as

President at the forty-eighth session with such great

competence and skill.

My congratulations go also to our Secretary-General,

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who since becoming the leader

of our Organization has endeavoured with such dedication

to bring our Member States closer to the purposes and

principles of the Charter. On behalf of the Congolese

people, I would like to reiterate to this humble servant of

mankind our most earnest encouragement as he discharges

his lofty responsibilities.

Many peace-keeping and goodwill missions of the

United Nations are currently to be found on African soil.

We welcome this necessary assistance, while we hope that

the peoples concerned will do even better in fostering

conditions for a return to peace.

Finally, how can one not feel overcome with joy at the

triumphant welcome given the return of the Republic of

South Africa to the commonwealth of free nations? This

return, which puts the finishing touches on the liberation of

the African continent from colonialism and racism, is surely

a source of legitimate satisfaction for the Members of the

United Nations who devoted so much energy and so many

resources in the battle of the South African people against

apartheid. To the delegation of that country that embodies

the hopes of an entire continent, I would like to extend a

warm, fraternal welcome.

At the beginning of this forty-ninth session the

Assembly faces a complicated situation that combines real

reasons for satisfaction with extremely worrisome issues.

A marked trend towards dialogue and cooperation in

search of solutions to the problems that confront our

world encourages our desire for a new system of

international relations that would be more humane and

more just. The United Nations has to its credit many

achievements in the restoration and creation of peace.

Conflicts that have been solved or are in the process of

being solved give, little by little, faith and confidence in

the future, indeed I would say to life, to those peoples

who have been subjugated by despair, if not by the

disturbing resurgence of civil wars, ethnic tensions and

religious crusades.

The abolition of apartheid in South Africa, which

seemed impossible yesterday, is a reality today, as if to

grant the wishes of the international community and to

reward the strictures of the United Nations, a peaceful

transition has given birth to a united, democratic and non-

racist South Africa.

A peaceful settlement to the question of the Aouzou

strip has rid Central Africa of a fratricidal conflict. I

hope the example of Libya and Chad will inspire other

States as well.

Firmly and resolutely, the dynamic of peace begun

in the Middle East is growing stronger and is opening

prospects for cooperation to peoples long ruined by war

and yet fated by geography and history to live together.

This is why, in hailing the significant progress achieved

in this process, the Republic of the Congo hopes that we

will see rapid progress in the Arab-Israeli negotiations

with a view to the establishment of a thorough, just and

lasting peace in the Middle East.

But the hope offered by the progress that has been

achieved remains frustrated by the persistence of local

wars that continue their bloodshed in various parts of the

world. Political differences and ethnic, racial or religious

diversity, far from enriching society, have elicited

intolerance, hatred, violence and, worst of all, the

destruction of what is most precious to us all: human

life. From Bosnia to Angola, the similarities are striking.

Of these crises that conceal several basic questions, we

see that a record number are in Africa: Angola, Somalia,

Liberia, Rwanda ...

The Republic of the Congo remains greatly

concerned about the situation in its sister republic and

neighbour Angola. We deplore the continuation of this

fratricidal, murderous war, sustained by the intransigence

and rigidity of UNITA. The Congolese Government

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supports all peace efforts undertaken by the international

community in the attempt to settle the conflict peacefully,

especially as part of the Lusaka negotiations: negotiations

in which Angola has made very constructive proposals that

show the determination of President Dos Santos and his

Government to find a solution that might take into account

all the political sensibilities of that country. My country

would like to reiterate its wish to see Angolans finally

reach understanding and reconciliation, so that they can

devote their energies to the rebuilding of their country, torn

apart by a war that has lasted far too long.

With regard to Liberia, we hope that the recent signing

in Ghana of the cease-fire agreement by the various

protagonists will lead to better prospects for that country.

The genocide we have seen in Rwanda, another sad

chapter in the history of mankind, is only the most extreme

and inhuman manifestation of the problems facing Africa

today. Violence, poverty, famine, disease, refugees,

spiralling population growth - such is the widespread image

of contemporary Africa. This well-known, gloomy picture

no doubt stems from a habitual pessimism rather than from

a thorough study of reality.

The increase in the inequality between the richest and

the poorest countries has grown more complex with the

emergence of worldwide markets, trade, communications -

even, unfortunately, pollution. Africa, long relegated to the

background, seems to have combined all the social

pathologies that inexorably strike ever-growing and ever-

poorer populations. In our underdeveloped countries,

chronic indebtedness and the drop in the prices of our basic

commodities, compounded by the pernicious reduction in

public aid for development and investments that continue to

ignore our legislation, however attractive and liberal it may

be, are worsening the disappearance of sources of financing

and development.

Here growth is slow to appear, whereas early signs

already herald the beginnings of expansion in the world

economy. The unemployed population is increasing, and

workers are under a constant uncertainty. As if to complete

this picture, natural disasters - drought and desertification -

compete with epidemics such as AIDS and malaria.

Infections we thought to have eradicated are reappearing.

In this context of a disastrous economy, a population

explosion has eliminated any hope of redressing the

imbalance between an almost zero economic growth rate

and a population growth rate that is out of control. This

situation has destroyed all our efforts at recovery.

Congo, for its part, has not escaped this common

destiny. The socio-political crisis which has shaken my

country to its very foundations and brought great grief to

many Congolese families has to a large extent torn the

social fabric and has completely ruined our economy.

This crisis has at least had the merit of destroying many

illusions.

We had thought - or pretended to think - that it was

enough simply to copy the old Western democracies and

hold free elections under international supervision to

ensure that democracy prospered, that it was unnecessary

to take local realities into account.

Surely the European Parliament learned a bitter

lesson from its failure, because it said to the new

democracies that peoples and Governments should find

formulas which would enable them to create democratic,

lawful institutions based on their own history and cultural

identity.

How can we claim that in two years’ time we have

done away with the ills of 30 years of badly assimilated

Marxist-Leninist culture, a culture which was

fundamentally hostile to pluralistic democracy and

fundamentally opposed to individual growth. And what

should we say of the harmful effects of so many years of

Marxist management of an economy that is today doomed

because of that failure?

Congo’s economy today is suffering from the

disastrous consequences of ill-advised economic policies,

which has given my country the honour of being placed

among the most indebted countries in the world. In

addition to this economic bankruptcy we find the waste,

the ruin of our cultural and moral values, and a

breakdown of the innate genius of our people.

Insidious and pernicious, destitution and poverty

have crept into the private lives of men and women,

every day becoming more numerous, men and women

who to survive must hide behind the ultimate bulwark of

ethnicity, which has become a factor for segregation and

division.

Made idle and vulnerable, and subjected to chronic

unemployment, our youth are now indulging in the

illusion of drugs and the armed defence of dubious

causes.

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Thus, we see the scope of the consequences of so

many harmful factors in a society where people have lost

all sense of perspective. Violence then becomes the outlet

for venting all sorts of political, economic and social

frustrations.

The outbreaks of violence in the Congo are the most

absurd manifestation of this. We must rely on our

traditional values to revive our dedication to dialogue and

peace and hence realize how vain such extreme behaviour

is - indeed, nothing more than human folly.

We have given new life to the democratic process; we

have started all over again. This is a process redirected

towards democratic transition, the first stage of power-

sharing; it is the result of a policy of administrative

decentralization, one of the foundations of the development

programme of President Pascal Lissouba. Today leaders of

the opposition are mayors of Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire -

the main cities in the country - and are thereby making

their contribution to the national recovery.

Congo’s experience highlights the challenges facing

the new democracies, in particular young African

democracies, which in order to build one nation must

emerge from the condition of multi-ethnic States and one-

party or feudal systems and pass on to full democracy with

its corollary, a market economy.

In order to meet these challenges, Congo has opted for

a programme of economic and social recovery that is

already under way. The programme involves the

relaunching of our country’s development.

Our bitter experience has led us to conclude that we

must give pride of place to the economy in order to

safeguard the young and fragile Congolese democracy and

give it a solid basis, especially taking into account the

crucial needs of our peoples, our own values and

geopolitical realities.

To fulfil this objective, the programme involves in its

initial phase a structural adjustment programme concluded

with the Bretton Woods institutions, a programme we are

determined to carry out successfully in spite of the

enormous sacrifices this will entail for our people. This

must be done because we are determined to stimulate

development and to revive hope among our people. We are

banking on relaunching progress, but Congo cannot succeed

alone. Africa is our salvation.

Indeed, it is in the integration and complementarity

of our economies that we should try to find solutions so

that we can emerge from the grave economic and social

crisis that has engulfed our countries, and especially

relaunch our growth and development. Let us hope that

the African States will be able to create the conditions for

this complementarity, especially through the use of

science and technology.

This initiative gives a good idea of the crucial

importance of the establishment of the African Economic

Community. But in order to succeed this endeavour

requires human as well as financial resources. In this

connection, the international community is called upon to

give resolute help to our countries in their efforts to find

competent men and women who can promote

development by their know-how, in the appropriate

institutions.

Development and the effective use of human

resources are a decisive factor for the socio-economic

development of our African continent. That is why,

guided by this requirement of development, the Congolese

Government has established the Panafrican Institute of

Management and Innovation to train people in the

management of resources, including human resources.

For the initiator of this project, His Excellency

President Pascal Lissouba, development cannot be defined

solely in terms of growth; it must also be defined in terms

of the ability to master the art of management.

The second requirement of this endeavour is to fund

it. In this connection, we are not relying only on

financial resources - that is, a massive influx of capital

into our poor economies. The economies would still have

to be able to digest such capital.

Above and beyond the generation of financial flows

to our countries, what Africa needs above all is the

establishment of a financial instrument, whose machinery

would be brought into harmony with the other, existing

instruments of international cooperation. This financial

instrument, with the support of all the African countries,

would obtain appropriate support from the international

community, especially the Bretton Woods institutions.

Thus, the African Development Bank is in our view

the best institution to deal with the financial aspect and,

furthermore, to study a system for funding science and

technology for development. Today more than ever

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before, science and technology are part and parcel of

development; they are requirements of development.

The favourable developments in the world political

situation have given rise to the hope that a new era of

peace will give the United Nations the role that its founders

intended it to play.

Everything - or almost everything - would seem to

augur well for a new world order: an outpouring of

freedom and democracy; a revival of the universal

awareness of human rights; and the pre-eminence of the

United Nations in resolving issues linked to international

peace, development and security.

Unfortunately, the psychosis of nuclear apocalypse

characteristic of the cold war has given way to a violent,

deadly expression of freedom and of local wars in a large

number of developing countries, especially in Africa. We

have already stated that economic frustration is at the root

of these events. Therefore, peace and security in our States

and throughout the world require a solution to our people’s

economic and social problems as well as the transformation

of the world economic system with a view to establishing

a more just order. It is only then that we can have a true

idea of the Agenda for Development and of its capability of

meeting the expectations and concerns of the developing

countries.

The vagaries of the Rwandan tragedy, especially at the

time when the critical decision was taken by the Security

Council to withdraw the United Nations Assistance Mission

for Rwanda (UNAMIR), should awaken the conscience of

people everywhere and make them pause and reflect. The

joint efforts of the United Nations and of the Organization

of African Unity (OAU) were crystal-clear. The continent-

wide organization, through its conflict-prevention,

-management and -resolution machinery, had committed

itself to continuing these efforts.

My country welcomes the return of United Nations

peace-keeping forces to Rwanda after a departure that had

left us with the bitter feeling that the decision was

inappropriate.

Congo, in spite of its internal difficulties, from the

very outset had felt concerned over the Rwandan tragedy.

In a manifestation of fraternal solidarity, my country has

taken part in all the humanitarian and peace-keeping

operations in Rwanda, ranging from the OAU observer

mission, UNAMIR I and operation "Turquoise" to today’s

UNAMIR II.

In drawing conclusions from these tragic events, the

11 States of Central Africa, brought together in the

United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on Security

Questions in Central Africa, have decided to create from

among their respective armed forces a single peace-

keeping unit. This unit, once set up, will take part in

OAU and United Nations peace-keeping operations.

Today more than ever, in that part of Africa so sorely

tried by instability and civil war, this advisory committee

would appear to be a valuable instrument for preventing

crises and conflicts and seems deserving of the attention

and support of the international community. The recent

signing of a non-aggression pact among the States of the

subregion is a most concrete example of this.

This framework body for joint efforts for subregional

peace and security, which my country will host in March

and August 1995, will help, we are convinced, to prevent

crises and conflicts and thereby lay the foundations for

genuine peace and cooperation in Central Africa.

In an international context where we still see certain

conflicts, we must acknowledge once again the pre-

eminent role of the Security Council, which safeguards

international peace and security. The spectacular increase

in the membership of the United Nations as well as the

emergence of new political and economic forces the

world over require an expansion of this body on the basis

of equitable geographic representation. In so doing, we

would only be abiding by the criterion of universality,

which has always guided our Organization and which

must be constantly adapted to newly emerging realities.

Our destinies are bound to become increasingly

intertwined, our horizons to broaden, and all this in a

spirit of diversity, complementarity and solidarity without

any will to power or domination. Increased developments

in science and technology will result in a globalization of

the challenges we must face.

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May we be able to make the best possible use of the

vast potential open to us, so that our long-suffering peoples

will finally see the dawning of the era of peace and

prosperity they so legitimately desire.