Solomon Islands, 1994

I wish, first of all,

to warmly congratulate Mr. Amara Essy on his election as

President of the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session,

a responsibility he will discharge effectively with the

proven diplomatic skills with which he has served his

country and his region so well. I take this opportunity also

to applaud the good work and leadership of his predecessor,

His Excellency Mr. Samuel Insanally, who presided over

the General Assembly at its forty-eighth session.

It is appropriate that on the eve of the fiftieth

anniversary of this Organization we enter a new era in

international relations, an era untainted by the cold-war

politics that held peace and positive change hostage for too

long. Opportunities now abound for change and lasting

peace. This new era demands that all Member States take

a global view of how the Organization can best meet the

objectives set out in the Charter.

President Bill Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin

demonstrated this new hope for peace at the opening of the

general debate, when both addressed the General Assembly

on the same day instead of on consecutive days, as was the

old practice. In a spirit of cooperation, these two world

leaders described their intent to reduce their nation’s

stockpiles of nuclear and other weapons of mass

destruction. But disarmament must start from the heart.

And I hope that this is the case with the step these two

Presidents have taken towards the betterment of all

humankind.

Today, we would recall that peace and hatred come

from within people - the mirror of a nation, the image of a

region and the living treasure of the global community. In

order to build a peaceful and safe world for future

generations, our resolve to reduce nuclear and other

weapons of mass destruction must lie within the hearts of

our leaders and policy makers throughout the world. We

must therefore seize this opportunity and work together to

build a better world.

In this regard, Solomon Islands welcomes the

various peace initiatives that continue to bring hope to the

world community. The noble efforts of President

Mandela to chart a new direction for South Africa must

be commended. In his first address as the first President

of the new democratic South Africa, President Mandela

acknowledged the efforts of the international community

in this way:

"The universal struggle against apartheid and its

final dismantlement was not an act of charity arising

out of pity for the majority of South African people

but an affirmation of our common humanity."

Progress towards a lasting peace in the Middle East

has renewed the hope of the international community for

stability in that region. The parties involved in these

negotiations deserve our sincere acclaim and praise and

our continuing support. Replacing guns with meaningful

handshakes often takes leaders beyond their physical

nature and leads them to resort to their spiritual

mindsets - a dimension that is often ignored but which is

an essential ingredient in a recipe for conflict resolution.

The cease-fire in Northern Ireland has changed

people’s perception of the impossibility of the simple

reality of living without guns and bullets. These are

telling achievements for our times, and their roots are

embedded in the human spirit of love and kindness.

Despite United Nations interventions to restore

intra-State and international peace and security, the world

is still riddled with trouble spots and endangered by

human-induced threats such as the potential impact of

climate change and sea-level rise. We witness with

horror the human suffering in Rwanda, Somalia, Angola,

Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Haiti. Solomon Islands

calls on the parties concerned to lay down their arms and

resort to non-violent means of negotiating peace. True

and real peace has to spring from within the warring

parties, replacing animosity.

Close to home in the Solomon Islands is the five-

year-old crisis on Bougainville, a province of Papua New

Guinea. It spilled over into Solomon Islands and caused

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a rift between the two countries. Nevertheless, through a

process of mutual dialogue between the National

Government of Papua New Guinea and the Bougainville

Revolutionary Army, several important agreements have

been signed. These include the Honiara commitments to

peace, the cease-fire agreement and the historic

peace-keeping agreement on Bougainville. The role of the

Solomon Islands Government in this conflict has been

conciliatory, facilitating peace negotiations amongst the

parties concerned. Solomon Islands supports the

Bougainville Peace Conference, expected to be convened on

10 October. This reflects our commitment to restoring

peace and normalcy on Bougainville.

Solomon Islands pledges its support and commitment

to the ideals of the United Nations. We believe it to be the

only world body capable of maintaining world peace and

security. Solomon Islands shares the views of New

Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign

Affairs and Trade, the Right Honourable Don McKinnon,

whose statement at the general debate provided six

important management issues that should be addressed

while conducting United Nations peace-keeping operations.

There is no doubt in my mind that all of us want an

effective United Nations - an Organization that meets the

objectives it sets out to achieve, an Organization whose

Charter is valid because its actions are reliable.

Solomon Islands welcomes the current initiatives

undertaken by the Secretary-General in reforming the

Organization and supports proposals made by other

Member States for further reforms. These reforms, in our

view, must also reflect the needs of small island developing

States such as my own, particularly the need to remove "the

floor" to enable Member States to meet their financial

obligations. Some want to pay their assessed annual

contributions but do not have the capacity to do so; hence

a relative and fair formula should be worked out.

In his report (A/49/1) on the work of the Organization,

the Secretary-General has identified peace, the economy,

the environment, justice and democracy as the five

interlocking pillars of development. These will provide the

foundations for the kind of development that will ensure

human progress.

"An Agenda for Peace" paved the way forward from

the dark ages of the cold war; the United Nations

Conference on Environment and Development was a

reawakening initiative to save planet Earth; the Second

World Conference on Human Rights sought to establish

universal rights for all peoples throughout the world

irrespective of race, creed, political affiliation or sex; the

International Conference on Population and Development

saw the need to control the soaring world population,

which now stands at 5.7 billion; and next year the World

Summit for Social Development and the World

Conference on Women will address poverty,

unemployment, social integration and the empowerment

of women to take their rightful place in society. These

are efforts of Member States committed to the noble

cause of securing a peaceful, safe and sustainable world

to live in. To achieve these noble goals, an effective

global partnership is of paramount importance.

Technology has made the world’s smaller economies

become more interdependent.

Agenda 21, the outcome of the United Nations

Conference on Environment and Development, made a

special case for small island developing States because of

their peculiar vulnerabilities. The response to this call

was the convening of the Global Conference on the

Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing

States in Barbados in April this year. The passage from

Rio to Barbados, at least for small island developing

States, was a Programme of Action outlining national,

regional and international actions. Our collective support

is needed to implement this. If we agree that

development takes many forms and requires different

responses, then our task will be made easier if we act

together. Solomon Islands fully supports the Barbados

Programme of Action and calls on the members of the

international community to honour their commitments as

spelled out in Agenda 21. The successful implementation

of the Programme of Action will depend on these

commitments.

The Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali,

in his "Agenda for Peace" report to the Security Council,

stressed that cooperation with regional arrangements and

organizations could be of great benefit to Member States

if their activities were consistent with the purposes and

principles of the Charter and governed by the provisions

of Chapter VIII. Some of those bodies have already

gained observer status at the United Nations. This shows

the useful role these arrangements and organizations can

play in international affairs. Therefore, the strengthening

of regional arrangements and organizations that are

working closely with the United Nations is a critical

issue.

In this regard, Solomon Islands strongly supports the

decision by the South Pacific Forum to seek United

Nations observer status at the forty-ninth session of the

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General Assembly. We acknowledge with gratitude the

role of Australia, the current Chairman of the South Pacific

Forum, in guiding this initiative through the United Nations

system on the Forum’s behalf. We thank Member States

that have expressed support for this call and invite others to

do likewise.

As a member of the South Pacific Forum and the

Melanesian Spearhead Group, Solomon Islands endorses the

Forum Communiqué issued following the meeting of the

twenty-fifth South Pacific Forum held in Brisbane,

Australia, this year. We are a party to the Joint Declaration

on Economic and Trade Cooperation signed in Solomon

Islands this year between Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and

Solomon Islands. Solomon Islands calls upon the

international community to support our regional

arrangements and organizations from which our strength for

collective action is derived and which are responsible for

our flow of communication.

Forestry and fisheries resources remain my country’s

main income earners. The Solomon Islands Government is

gravely concerned about the unsustainable utilization and

management of these resources and has taken steps to

ensure sustainable harvesting and conservation measures

and to form a national policy. We are party to Agreements

reached in Brisbane at the meeting of the South Pacific

Forum to cooperate on a wider basis in order to ensure

sustainable development of fisheries and forestry resources

in our region. Because of the fragility of our ecological

system, our biodiversity resources, including forestry and

fisheries and other marine living resources, are threatened.

It is heartening to note that after 12 years of

negotiations the world will witness the coming into force of

the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in

November this year. However, we strongly feel that further

cooperation is still needed from the distant water fishing

nations regarding sustainable harvesting of straddling fish

stocks and highly migratory fish stocks, including

non-targeted species. We therefore urge distant-water

fishing nations to come to grips with the need to complete,

as soon as practicable, negotiations on a legally binding

agreement on proper conservation and management and

sustainable utilization of high seas fisheries resources.

Education is a priority sector in my country. It is a

key to the effective management of my country’s natural

resources as well as a means of achieving the advancement

of women to take their rightful place in society. There is

a direct link between the education of women and

population control. We welcome the outcome of the Cairo

International Conference on Population and Development

and look forward to the World Conference on Women, to

be held in Beijing in 1995.

The World Summit for Social Development also has

profound implications for capacity-building, institutional

strengthening and the transfer of technologies and their

appropriate use. Human-centred activities, including

tourism development and skills training, are important for

the development of human resources. We endorse the

1994 Human Development Report of the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) for its emphasis on

human-centred development, an approach that has positive

ripple effects in solving other social problems.

Drug trafficking and the criminal activities

associated with it worry us in the Pacific, and we are not

alone in this. We need international cooperation to stop

the movement of illegal drugs from one region to another.

Solomon Islands supports the South Pacific Forum

position that the non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) should be

extended indefinitely. However, we would like to see

firm commitments from the nuclear-weapon States to

show the world a leadership role in reducing their

stockpiles. We also wish to see a rigid review

mechanism set up to be a safeguard instrument as an

integral part of the indefinite extension agreement.

It is encouraging to hear the United States, the

Russian Federation and China speak in support of the

Non-Proliferation Treaty and the comprehensive test-ban

treaty. It is hoped that a level of harmony between the

NPT, the comprehensive test-ban treaty and the cut-off

convention may be maintained to enhance the elimination

of weapons of mass destruction in an integrated manner.

Solomon Islands urges the post-Forum dialogue

partners that have not yet done so to ratify the South

Pacific nuclear-free zone Treaty. Nuclear testing in the

Pacific is not part of our vocabulary.

Consistent with our belief in a nuclear-free world,

waste dumping in the Pacific Ocean is not to be

encouraged. We strongly oppose those who may violate

this natural rule. We also firmly oppose the

transshipment and transboundary movement of plutonium

in the South Pacific region.

We need to see some further movement towards a

speedy implementation of the Matignon Accords. In this

regard, we request the Government of France and the

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territorial authorities to increase their efforts to achieve real

economic and social rebalancing.

Solomon Islands welcomes the move to formulate an

agenda and proposals to promote trade and investment

between the United States and the Pacific Islands, which

will be the subject of a meeting at the East-West Centre in

Hawaii later this year.

Apart from the other vulnerabilities that plague small

island developing States, the potential impact of climate

change and rising sea levels poses a great threat to Pacific

islands. There is overwhelming scientific evidence pointing

to the danger we now face.

In this regard, Solomon Islands supports the Alliance

of Small Island States, which has submitted to next year’s

Conference of the parties to the Convention on Climate

Change an additional protocol aimed at securing a reduction

of the emission of greenhouse gases to the 1990s level by

2005, a protocol to which the industrialized countries would

be obliged to be parties.

We in Solomon Islands firmly believe that the

Republic of China on Taiwan has much to contribute to the

work of the United Nations and its specialized agencies in

terms of international cooperation and development. This

Republic, with a population more than 58 times that of my

own country and highly technologically advanced, deserves

to be admitted as a Member of the United Nations. The

full participation of the Republic of China on Taiwan in the

important work of the United Nations would be an

affirmation of the Charter and of democracy and a

manifestation of the human spirit’s pursuit of a better

quality of life for humankind. In my Government’s view,

a move as noble as the admission of the Republic of China

on Taiwan would be not an obstacle to reunification, but a

catalyst in the process. In our view, the Secretary-General

should use his good offices to encourage the establishment

of a committee specifically to facilitate and/or work

progressively towards the re-entry of the Republic of China

to membership of the United Nations.

President Ernesto Samper Pizano of the Republic of

Colombia, speaking from this podium, described Colombia

as

"a country searching for peace because it so loves

life." (Official Records of the General Assembly,

forty-ninth session, Plenary Meetings, 5th meeting, p.

8)

We in Solomon Islands, too, love life very much, and our

search is for a better quality of life, which should flow

from the wise and sustainable development of our

resources.

Collectively, however, our search must be for world

peace so that we can live up to our dreams, visions and

God-given potential. I believe that the answer to the

problem of bringing about world peace lies in our own

hearts, not in the barrels of guns or military might. Here,

in this great world Assembly, let our hearts enkindle a

new torch to shine on the new path to world peace, from

the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations and beyond.