Senegal, 1994

The international community is meeting once again,

assembling the great diversity of the nations which are its

members, to consider the state of the world and to chart the

paths of progress for the 12 months that lie ahead.

We give thanks to God for having inspired the

delegations here present in their choice of His Excellency

Mr. Amara Essy, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the sisterly

and friendly Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, as President of the

Assembly at this session. His election is both an honour to

him personally and a tribute to his country inasmuch as the

world recognizes and acknowledges the great dedication of

Côte d’Ivoire to everything affecting peace and

understanding among people. It does so thanks to the

vision of the late President Houphouët-Boigny, which

continues to be carried on by his illustrious successor,

President Henri Konan Bédié.

The personal joy and pride which I feel concerning

him as our friend and brother is shared by my entire

delegation as well as in Senegal which, since time

immemorial, has had numerous ties of friendship and

cooperation with Côte d’Ivoire. Hence, the

acknowledgement of his merits by the international

community was received and hailed in Senegal with the

same intensity as in Côte d’Ivoire. The President can count

on the support of the delegation of Senegal to contribute to

the success of his mission. The warmth of the

congratulations we extend to him today is equalled by the

pride which we feel at seeing him preside over the forty-

ninth session of the General Assembly.

We pay a tribute to his predecessor, the Permanent

Representative of Guyana, Ambassador Insanally, for the

skill and authority with which he guided the work of the

Assembly at its forty-eighth session.

I should like also to repeat our gratitude to our

Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for the

energy and dedication which he continues to devote to his

outstanding mission at the head of our Organization, a

mission which he is carrying out with the same efficiency

in an ever more difficult global context.

Finally, allow me to thank delegations for the

unanimous decision to elect the Permanent Representative

of Senegal to the United Nations, Mr. Kéba Birane Cissé,

one of our most outstanding diplomats, as Chairman of

the Third Committee. In so doing this mission is

entrusted to Senegal, whose dedication to human rights

and to the other areas falling within the competence of

this important Committee, is known to all. Mr. Cissé and

all of us intend to dedicate ourselves fully, together with

the other countries represented here, to ensure that the

work of the Third Committee is crowned with success.

If there are years which the history of the world

cannot ignore, the twelve-month period that has just

elapsed is doubtless among them. It has been extremely

rich in events of great political significance characterized

by the positive developments of the situation in South

Africa which saw the end of apartheid and which, only a

few months ago, saw the advent of a democratic Power.

It was also a period marked by the political and

psychological upheavals that have taken place in Arab-

Israeli relations. In this context, we are gratified to see

South Africa now occupying its rightful place in the

family of nations.

The truth always wins in the end. It is in the name

of that inevitable reality - which is the token of the

ultimate objective of just causes - that the chronic

problem of the Middle East - at the heart of which is the

question of Palestine - has, since the Declaration of

Principles of 13 September 1993 in Washington, seen

developments marked by the continued collapse of

important panels of that psychological wall that has so

long divided Arabs and Israelis.

Thus, in the region which was the cradle of the

sublime spiritual messages of the religions of the Book,

such developments now justify hope - the hope of finally

seeing the creation of a space for lasting coexistence

between Israelis and Palestinians, between Israel and the

Arab countries, with genuine respect for the inalienable

rights of the peoples and States of the entire region.

They justify the hope of seeing the establishment,

between those States and peoples, of cooperation at all

possible levels, to manage, together, their vital support

systems.

It is only fitting that in mentioning those hopes we

pay a tribute to all those involved in this positive

development whose efforts have made possible the

opening of this new window of opportunity on the

conflict in the Middle East, especially the Palestinian and

Israeli leaders who, thanks to their political courage and

sense of history, finally agreed to set out on this path

towards a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

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In again expressing to His Excellency President Yasser

Arafat Senegal’s support and admiration for the courage

and political farsightedness which led him to keep a firm

grip on that olive branch of which he spoke here in 1974,

I should like on behalf of Senegal to formulate the hope

that as he takes the additional steps necessary to reach an

overall solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict all the other

aspects of this matter will be dealt with in accordance with

the positive trend of present developments, and that a

settlement will be reached in keeping with the relevant

resolutions of the Security Council.

We also wish wholeheartedly to extend these

congratulations and expressions of encouragement to the

Israeli Prime Minister, His Excellency Mr. Yitzak Rabin,

and to his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Shimon Peres,

for their sustained efforts to achieve a settlement of the

Middle East crisis. Such efforts must be pursued, stepped

up and encouraged.

However, the past year, although marked by such

positive and historic events, was not free from reasons for

concern and even, at times, despair. Indeed, despite our

constantly renewed efforts, a number of conflicts persist

and are even sometimes becoming mired down in scenes of

horror we had hoped never against to witness.

From Angola to Bosnia and Herzegovina, from Liberia

to Somalia, and recently in Rwanda, we have received the

echoes and images and witnessed the piercing horror of

persistent crisis situations that leave us no choice other than

to continue doggedly to strive for dialogue and concerted

action to find lasting solutions based on equity, based on

justice, based on law and based on the unshakeable will to

live finally in peace in a community made up of human

beings.

In the conflict situations on the African continent,

today, more than ever before, machinery for the prevention,

management and settlement of African conflicts must be

implemented through respect for the various peace

agreements that have been signed among factions that are,

sadly, continuing to kill each other; our continent of Africa

must be committed once and for all to the only battle worth

the candle, namely, the battle for democratic development

and the advancement of human rights.

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) has

dedicated itself to this task, and it has done so persistently

and courageously. Today, it needs the support of the whole

of the international community.

The question of Angola must be peacefully and

finally resolved in the spirit of the Lusaka negotiations,

under the aegis of the United Nations. After having

hailed the meritorious efforts undertaken by the

authorities in Luanda, we must launch another strong and

concrete appeal to UNITA to allow peace finally to reign

in Angola.

In connection with the problems in Somalia and

Rwanda, I should like to recall certain specific facts

concerning the position that my country, Senegal, has

taken on these questions of such concern to everyone.

In Somalia, the peace so long sought by the

international community can obviously come about only

through an overall political settlement that would deal

with all aspects of that fratricidal conflict. Moreover,

because he understood this at a very early stage, His

Excellency President Abdou Diouf - then the Chairman of

the OAU, and also in his capacity of President of the

Sixth Summit Meeting of the Organization of the Islamic

Conference - speaking from this rostrum in 1992, put

forward the idea of convening an international conference

devoted to Somalia. The General Assembly at that time

responded to the appeal by the Senegalese Head of State

by adopting a resolution to that effect that is still highly

relevant. Given the persistence of the problem of

Somalia, which today seems more than ever likely to take

another tragic turn, it would appear that the time has

come to re-examine that initiative.

In Rwanda, a human tragedy on a virtually

unprecedented scale took place following the events of

last April. In this connection, I should like to note that

our country has been actively involved in the search for

a solution to this conflict since 1992. Indeed, President

Abdou Diouf, then the Chairman of the OAU, presided

over the lengthy negotiations that culminated in the

Arusha Agreements. In addition, officers from the

Senegalese national army were part of the Group of

Neutral Military Observers of the OAU entrusted with

supervising the cease-fire, a group that was as we know

replaced in 1993, with the signature of the Arusha

Agreements, by the United Nations Assistance Mission

for Rwanda (UNAMIR), in which Senegal has

participated and continues to participate.

Thus, it was quite natural that on 22 June of this

year, faced with the inadmissible continuing massacre of

civilians, the Security Council adopted resolution 929

(1994), which established a multinational force for

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humanitarian purposes, and that Senegal decided to

participate in it.

With regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina, need we

recall that this is a United Nations Member State to whose

territorial integrity and sovereignty the international

community is committed. This places full responsibility on

the community of nations, gathered together here, to settle

the conflict after identifying the aggressor.

However, it is as though the Bosnian Serbs had been

actually authorized to defy with impunity and in an ongoing

fashion the expressed will of the international community.

The attacks against the personnel of the United Nations

Protection Force (UNPROFOR), the repeated violations of

security zones, the rejection of the latest peace plan

proposed by the Contact Group of five Western countries,

are all part of a pattern of confrontation with which the

international community must finally deal, firmly and with

determination.

In this connection, we believe that the adoption on 23

September 1994 of Security Council resolution 943 (1994),

which suspended the economic sanctions against the Federal

Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), is not

only premature but untimely, given the deterioration in the

situation.

It is our opinion, one shared by the majority of States

here present, that the sanctions should be, if not

strengthened, at least maintained until favourable conditions

have been created - that is, the establishment of an effective

system of international monitoring of the border between

Serbia and Montenegro, on the one hand, and the territories

occupied by the Bosnian Serbs, on the other; the lifting of

the siege of Sarajevo; the sincere commitment by the

Bosnian Serbs to cooperate in reaching a comprehensive

political settlement of the crisis; the lifting, where the

Bosnian Government is concerned, of the arms embargo

imposed by Security Council resolution 713 (1991) in order

to restore to Bosnia and Herzegovina the means for its self-

defence as set forth in Article 51 of the United Nations

Charter.

It is also important that the international community

dedicate itself to the reconstruction of Bosnia and

Herzegovina, a country that is today being battered and

devastated by blatant aggression.

In our view, those measures represent the minimum

we should expect from the international community in order

to give credibility to the peace process being pursued in

Bosnia and Herzegovina. On this delicate issue, Senegal,

whose Head of State is also the current President of the

Organization of the Islamic Conference, will continue to

act within the framework of international law to ensure

that the Bosnian people, finally reconciled among

themselves, may know lasting peace based on an equality

of rights and duties among its various components.

The economic problems today are of such a

magnitude that a new concept of world security has been

generated. Today, indeed, the feeling of insecurity

emanates more often from the vicissitudes of daily life

than from any fear of global cataclysm. That is the

conclusion reached in this year’s report by the United

Nations Development Programme on human development.

Job security, health security and environmental

security are the forms that the global problem of security

takes today. This development naturally raises the

question of the definition of a new "social pact", which

must give further priority to human solidarity - solidarity

among the communities of men - and it demonstrates the

great importance that Senegal attaches to the Summit on

social development that is to be held in Copenhagen next

March. On that occasion we shall have to restructure our

thinking about development, and it will be necessary to

highlight better the human aspect of development based

on greater international solidarity.

It was in this spirit that, here on 30 September 1992,

Senegal’s Head of State proposed to the international

community the conclusion of a general agreement on

solidarity - a gentlemen’s agreement on solidarity. It is

a positive thing that this proposal has been largely taken

on board in the United Nations Secretary-General’s

outline, Agenda for Development, which is designed to

promote a genuine culture of development that will take

into account all aspects of the human condition.

For the same reasons Senegal welcomes warmly the

reforms of United Nations bodies that are under way - in

particular, those bodies that are responsible for questions

of economic and social development.

We favour the formula "Trade, not aid", which has

often been used to indicate that global trade is the

genuine driving force for economic progress - more so

than aid for development. It is beneficial that, along

these lines, on 15 April last, in Marrakesh in the

Kingdom of Morocco, the representatives of 126 countries

signed the agreement that created the World Trade

Organization (WTO).

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We hope that the birth of the WTO represents the

completion of the structure that was conceived half a

century ago in Bretton Woods as international trade has

been raised to the same status as monetary policy and

finance for development. Thus, the Marrakesh Final Act

opens the way for a new dynamic of concerted action, of

consultation and solidarity, that will finally allow for the

promotion of a more just and more balanced system

designed to govern international trade.

If it is to do so, its practical application will have to

involve integration of the specific needs and specific

problems of the group of developing countries - such as

greater justice in the definition and application of new

machinery designed to govern international trade; regional

economic integration; immigration policies; professional

training; job creation; and the transfer of technologies to

meet the needs and aspirations of the countries of the

South.

In this regard, I must mention an event of great

importance: the adoption, in Paris on 18 June 1994, of the

International Convention to Combat Desertification in

Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or

Desertification, Particularly in Africa. Many of us here

represent those countries.

This is the outcome, in terms of action, of one of the

major recommendations to emerge from the United Nations

Conference on Environment and Development. As an

initiator of the Convention, our continent - Africa - cannot

but welcome the conclusion of this multilateral legal

instrument, which recognizes the existence of such a

worrying environmental problem.

It is desirable that there should be available to this

Convention, as to others of the same type, sufficient

financial resources to enable it to halt and reverse the

process of desertification, which is a real scourge for the

African continent.

The changes of considerable scope that have taken

place on the world stage over the past few years confront

the United Nations with new challenges and new missions.

For example, how can the Organization deal with identity

claims, domestic difficulties and civil wars while respecting

the principle of the sovereignty of States, which is the

cornerstone of the San Francisco Charter?

In what way can it - must it - react when individuals

and groups perpetrate all types of serious violations of

fundamental human rights, as happens in the case of the

conflicts that prevail in the former Yugoslavia, Angola,

Somalia and Rwanda? What barriers can be erected

against terrorism and civil war in order to cope with the

fragmentation of State entities, which are factors for

peace? In these difficult areas, as in others, our

Organization will have to demonstrate its ability to

engage in innovation and adaptation.

The establishment of an international Tribunal to

deal with war crimes in the former Yugoslavia; the plan

to set up an international criminal court; the deliberation,

begun last year, on reform of the Security Council and on

better implementation of Chapter VIII of the Charter -

these all demonstrate that the United Nations has

committed itself firmly to that course.

As regards the Security Council in particular, the

reform that is envisaged should be carried out with

concern simultaneously for efficiency in the functioning

of this body and for real representativeness in keeping

with the new realities of the world.

The changes that have taken place in the world

during the last few years have as their essence the

fundamental aspiration of peoples to freedom, justice and

development in a spirit of human solidarity. If it is to

last, the wind of democratization that they have created at

the national level requires parallel action at the

international level. Indeed, we must all ensure the equal

participation of all States in the establishment of new

norms that can give international life a more solid

foundation and provide better security for all. Such

security can be founded only on shared confidence in the

principles that govern our collective contribution to a

better future for the world - to the salvation of mankind.

Therefore, on the eve of the celebration of the

fiftieth anniversary of our Organization, let us, hand in

hand in a spirit of friendship and solidarity, behave in

such a way that the new era will shine with the radiance

of justice, peace and solidarity so that we may bequeath

to future generations a world of peace, justice and

friendship.