Senegal, 1999

In electing

you unanimously to preside over its at the fifty-fourth

session, Sir, the General Assembly paid a well-deserved

tribute to your country, the sister Republic of Namibia,

which in November 1989, under the auspices of the

United Nations Transition Assistance Group, organized

that land's first free and fair elections, which marked the

successful culmination of the legitimate, heroic struggle

of the Namibian people for independence, under the

leadership of the South-West Africa People's Organization

6

(SWAPO) and its President, His Excellency Mr. Sam

Nujoma. Now, following this happy sequence of events, we

are now pleased to see Namibia at the helm of this historic

session of the General Assembly, represented by you

yourself. On behalf of the delegation of Senegal, Sir, I

convey to you our warmest, fraternal congratulations; we

wish you every success in your high post.

I wish also to convey my sincere and warm

congratulations to your predecessor, Minister Didier Opertti,

on the competent, committed and authoritative way in

which he guided the work of the fifty-third session of the

General Assembly.

Finally, I wish once again to offer Secretary-General

Kofi Annan my encouragement as he continues, with

energy, intelligence and vision, to carry out his delicate

tasks authoritatively and successfully in a particularly

difficult global context. I feel bound to say that his election

to head the Secretariat of the United Nations was a source

of pride for Africa and a source of satisfaction for all

peace- and justice-loving countries. During the Secretary-

General's visit to Senegal, Mr. Abdou Diouf, President of

the Republic of Senegal, made it clear that the Senegalese

Government was committed to and actively supported the

Secretary-General.

I take genuine pleasure and great joy in welcoming

among us the delegations representing the Republic of

Kiribati, the Republic of Nauru and the Kingdom of Tonga,

which have just been admitted as full-fledged Members of

the great United Nations family. These admissions attest to

and bolster the universal character of our Organization, thus

helping strengthen its aims and principles.

Allow me to use the idea of universality to explain

and justify, if that is necessary, my country's unreserved

support for the admission of the Republic of China, with its

22 million inhabitants, as a full Member of the United

Nations and its specialized agencies. The Republic of

China — a democratic country concerned with safeguarding

and promoting human rights, a world economic Power

recognized by nations, and, last but not least, a nation that

maintains trade relations through commercial delegations —

shares with deep conviction our common faith in the noble

ideals of peace, solidarity and cooperation enshrined in the

Charter. That country, for the sake of the principle of the

universality of our Organization, should take its place once

more. Simple justice requires this, and the ideals embodied

in our Charter dictate it, because it is in the name of these

principles that other States are admitted as Members of this

Organization, which I welcome.

Our fifty-fourth regular session, we must all agree,

is an event of great historical and political significance.

Historical, because it is the penultimate session — or the

last, depending on how you look at it — of the twentieth

century, the century in which it was born, after two world

wars and other great calamities for humankind, the

consequences of which are still being felt.

This century has also been one of light, with

tremendous advances achieved by the human race in

various fields, particularly in science and technology. This

session takes on special political importance because it is

an irreplaceable tool in the service of peace, international

security, cooperation and the promotion of human rights

and is a timely opportunity for dialogue, reflection and

preparation for the great encounters of the coming

millennium.

At the threshold of the third millennium, we should

wonder and think together, in the framework of this

Organization, about what kind of peace, development and

solidarity we should build in the coming century. It is a

recognized fact that current changes, the range of whose

effects in the political, economic and social spheres

cannot be foreseen, call inevitably for a deep-going

reform of the United Nations and impose a need to adapt

the Organization to the demands of the times. Thus, we

need to be clear-sighted, creative and realistic and make

innovative, broad-ranging and constructive proposals that

can be translated into concrete actions taken solely in the

interests of all our peoples and all our nations, which

make up the family that we call humankind.

In this respect, reform of the Security Council is a

major test of our resolve to modernize this important

body, which we need to endow with greater transparency,

greater democracy, greater authority and greater

legitimacy — in short, greater credibility.

Many proposals have already been made, but in

restructuring this key organ of the system, we need to go

beyond them, demonstrating creativity and a willingness

to compromise, considering only the interests of this

Organization at the service of humanity. From this

standpoint, in the Algiers Declaration, the States of Africa

unanimously recalled the legitimate demands embodied in

the Harare Declaration adopted by the Conference of

Heads of State and Government of the Organization of

African Unity (OAU).

The pressing need to adapt the United Nations

system to the realities of the coming century should,

7

nonetheless, not obscure current acute needs associated with

the maintenance and promotion of peace in the world. In

this spirit, as the international community celebrates the

100th anniversary of the Hague Peace Conference, I wish

to say how much we welcome certain significant advances

towards peace in Africa.

We commend the Peace Agreement signed in Lomé

on 7 July 1999, thanks to the tireless efforts of the

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

and President Eyadema, in the context of the Sierra Leone

conflict. We also commend the Abuja Peace Agreement and

the additional protocols in the context of the Guinea-Bissau

conflict, thanks to the mediation of ECOWAS, under the

chairmanship of Nigeria and Togo. Senegal strongly

supports the Governments of Sierra Leone and

Guinea-Bissau in their efforts to build peace, to move

resolutely towards national reconciliation and to implement

a policy of economic and social recovery in their countries.

In the same spirit, the signing last 10 July, in Lusaka, of

the Ceasefire Agreement among the principal parties to the

conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is another

cause for satisfaction and hope.

I would also like to touch on the Lockerbie affair in

the hopes that the attitudes of the countries offer the

possibility of a successful outcome.

Last, but not least, my country expresses the warmest

hope that the referendum process under way in Western

Sahara will be completed as early as possible in accordance

with the letter and spirit of the United Nations settlement

plan adopted in 1991, as well as that of the Houston

agreements, with full respect for the inalienable rights of all

inhabitants of Western Sahara to participate in the

referendum. Allow me — and I think this is the right place

to do so — to pay humble tribute to the memory of

King Hassan II.

Finally, we hope that with the assistance of the great

Powers and the cooperation of Indonesia, the situation in

East Timor will be brought under control by the United

Nations in order to ensure that the legitimate rights of the

Timorese people prevail.

These significant breakthroughs should not make us

overlook the situations in Angola and Somalia, or the

conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, where, in spite of the

praiseworthy efforts of the OAU, there has been no serious

sign of a final settlement. We must therefore continue our

efforts because our only salvation lies in peace and in

reconciliation.

In this sense, the evolution we have witnessed in the

Middle East gives us grounds for hope, the hope of

finally seeing a climate of complete trust and confidence

and a sincere resumption of negotiations between Israelis

and Palestinians and between Israel and the Arab

countries, with the rights of the peoples of the region

respected. My country, having presided over the

Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of

the Palestinian People ever since its creation, reaffirms its

support for and solidarity with the fraternal people of

Palestine, the Palestinian Authority and its head, President

Yasser Arafat, which have been struggling now for more

than half a century for the creation of an independent and

sovereign Palestinian State.

We solemnly reaffirm our support for the Bethlehem

2000 project which has the objective of celebrating in

Bethlehem, on Palestinian soil, the second millennium

since the birth of Christ.

Furthermore, the Israeli Government seems now to

want to work resolutely for peace. We urge it to continue

on this path. It is the only approach that responds to the

situation of the peoples of the subregion and to the

hardships connected to the constraints imposed by

globalization.

Before concluding the subject of peace and security,

I would like to state that my country supports any move

to protect, safeguard and promote the rights of women

and children. Its legal code has been modified to translate

that choice and those convictions into its own domestic

law.

I should like now to deal with the other dimension

of peace: development cooperation. The United Nations,

responding once again to its mission to serve the peoples

of the world, has, during the major conferences of the

decade, provided a framework for the definition of a

coherent set of programmes based on consensus. These

programmes continue to inspire our common efforts

towards sustainable development.

But a careful review of the realities of this century

now coming to a close lead us to note that our

achievements have been seriously undermined by the

contradictory tendencies that are a hallmark of humanity

as it enters the third millennium. The lack of sufficient

sustained growth in the world as a whole means that the

global economy is facing great risks in the years to come.

Indeed, because of a lack of sufficient growth, trade

tensions are threatening to increase between

8

underdeveloped countries and around them, and thus the lag

in development can only increase, increasing the mob of

uncontrolled emigration.

In addition, the gap that has been emerging over many

years is becoming increasingly clear. On the one hand we

see a small number of regions enjoying a high standard of

living or rapid development. In these countries the volume

of trade, of interdependence and competition is increasing.

On the other hand, there is a group of countries — more

numerous and more populous — in which the standards of

living are poor and stagnating. They are for the most part

not involved in this ever-tighter network of commercial,

financial and industrial exchanges. It is difficult for them to

find markets for their products, they suffer from capital

flight, and businesses avoid setting up in these countries.

However, over the last four years, the gross national

product of Africa has grown at an annual average rate of

4.5 per cent, resulting in a year-on-year increase in per

capita incomes. This is particularly remarkable because the

progress is attributable, above all, to internal adjustment

efforts rather than to external phenomena. Nevertheless,

despite this macroeconomic performance, most African

countries do not possess the basic means for ensuring

sustainable growth in a future of a kind that would enable

them to achieve their poverty-reduction objectives in

keeping with the medium-term goals set at the World

Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen, because the

required rate of growth is in the order of 8 per cent per

year.

While it is true that the slow pace of integration of

African economies into the global economy has protected

most of these economies from the most violent shocks of

recent financial crises, the other side of the coin is that

Africa is not in a position to take full advantage of

globalization, which could increase the resources available

for productive investment. However, the developing

countries will not and cannot escape the effects of

globalization. We would therefore like to stress here — in

particular to our African partners in various initiatives such

as the second Tokyo International Conference on African

Development (TICAD II), the United States/Africa forum

and the negotiations between the European Union and

Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific — the need to

encourage the efforts that have been undertaken,

particularly in the elimination of the rigidities and

imbalances that persist in the global economy.

In this regard, it might be worthwhile to reaffirm the

commitment that joins the developing and the developed

countries within the World Trade Organization and

involves recognition of the need to make significant

efforts so that the developing countries — the least-

developed in particular — are assured of a share in the

growth in world trade in keeping with their development

needs.

But also, an examination of the way the principles

of the multilateral trade system created at the Uruguay

Round have been implemented reveals that commitments

have not been honoured: many obstacles impede access

by products from the South in general, and from African

countries in particular, to Northern markets. Tariff

barriers, sliding-scale increases in duty rates, anti-

dumping measures and animal and plant hygiene

measures all represent acts and attitudes that impede trade

and that affect our exports — and, thus, our trade

surpluses. That is why we venture to hope that the Seattle

Round in November this year will take into greater

account not only the concerns of the developing countries

positions by removing obstacles to their complete

participation in world trade on the basis of the principles

of justice and equity — particularly by working to reduce

and eliminate the restrictive and distorting effects that the

aforementioned barriers, laws and measures have on

trade — but will also take into consideration social rights

and sustainable development as inalienable elements in all

world trade.

Given the significant efforts by the African countries

to achieve their recent economic performance levels, it

will be a Herculean task in terms of resources for them to

achieve and maintain 8 per cent annual growth in their

gross domestic product, in order to reduce poverty. We

should like to take this opportunity to welcome the new

international climate for finding a solution to the African

debt crisis, particularly given that the total of this debt —

estimated at $350 billion in 1998 — represents 300 per

cent of Africa's export earnings.

To this end, the proposals by a some G-8 countries,

the United Nations Conference on Trade and

Development and other organs of the United Nations, as

well as the recent studies by the Bretton Woods

institutions, are signs of a new realism, i.e., that most of

the debt cannot be repaid, that the debt is a major

obstacle to balanced growth in African countries, and that

the current machinery for debt settlement, in particular the

Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt (HIPC) Initiative,

is too slow, too selective and imposes too many

conditions. The principal members of the World Bank and

the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must accept the

9

idea, among others, of increasing the resources for the

HIPC significantly by selling gold reserves.

Furthermore, despite the pressures within the donor

community to reduce aid volumes, the economic

performance of Africa and the continent's commitment to

structural reform can be maintained only on the basis of

expansion, not contraction: increased development

assistance is essential if we are to achieve the fundamental

objectives of development.

Finally, despite the praiseworthy efforts of our various

countries to implement economic and financial reforms,

inflows of direct foreign investment remain marginal.

In highlighting these major factors in the current

global economic situation, I am far from wishing to shirk

an enduring truth: sustainable development is the individual

responsibility of each State. The need for the international

community to find a more global and more judicious

solution to the debt problem in no way detracts from the

need for African countries to manage their economies

better.

This attitude towards debt will be put into practice by

the definition and implementation of a high-quality

macroeconomic framework; by a significant intensification

of efforts towards national thrift to accompany international

financing; and by respect for the state of law, transparency,

control and responsibility in the management of public

affairs. Thanks to the guidance and choices of Mr. Abdou

Diouf, President of the Republic, my country subscribes to

these fundamental principles, on which the policy of the

Government of Senegal is based.

I have particularly stressed questions of peace and

development because we live on a continent where peace is

threatened every day by underdevelopment and where

development efforts are made precarious by the absence of

peace. It is therefore important that efforts to consolidate

peace in Africa be accompanied by extraordinary efforts to

increase the quality and quantity of development assistance

in order significantly to reduce our debt and increase the

flow of productive investment to our continent and to

establish, if not a Marshall Plan for Africa, at least a plan

for financing its development.

My delegation fervently hopes that, at the dawn of the

twenty-first century, the opportunity will be found to revive

international cooperation for development in order to build

a more humane world. I am convinced that we have the

means and the intelligence; we must also summon the

political determination to do so. Thus, in order to improve

interaction, Africa for its part has agreed to promote

economic integration and to go one step further by

creating a union of African States. This was the sense of

the Syrte Declaration adopted on 9 September 1999 at the

Fourth Extraordinary Summit of heads of State of the

Organization of African Unity, convened on the happy

initiative of Mr. Al-Qadhafi.

I am convinced that the wealthy nations are clearly

aware of their various and diverse responsibilities and that

they will not shirk their obligations. Indeed, should they

do so, God forbid, the eternal night of hideous poverty

will blanket almost the entire world. I express the genuine

hope, willingly undertaken and profoundly shared by all

nations, that we cannot remain indifferent to anything that

is human. I am therefore convinced that, together, we can

save humanity.