Sri Lanka, 1998

At the outset,

Mr. President, let me extend to you Sri Lanka’s warmest

congratulations on your well-deserved election. We wish

you well and have no doubt that you will guide the work

of this session with wisdom, skill and commitment.

The Assembly owes a debt of gratitude to His

Excellency Mr. Hennadiy Y. Udovenko for his wise and

astute leadership as President of the General Assembly at

its fifty-second session.

22

This year Sri Lanka celebrates the golden jubilee of its

independence. We reclaimed our freedom in 1948, ending

nearly five centuries of colonial domination. We have given

shelter within our land to all the great religions of the

world: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. We are

a multiethnic and multicultural society. We are deeply

committed to the democratic way of life. Our people have

exercised universal adult franchise since 1931. We have a

parliamentary system of government, with elections held

regularly, where voter participation is uniquely high — as

much as 80 per cent on average. We have an independent

judiciary and free media. The rule of law is observed and

respected. Fundamental rights are guaranteed and rendered

justiciable. We are constantly alert to the protection of

human rights, even in the face of grave provocation from

some lawless elements that are bent on destroying our

democratic society.

Shortly after the achievement of its independence, Sri

Lanka became a member of the United Nations. In the

preamble to the Charter, the founding fathers expressed

their determination to save succeeding generations from the

scourge of war. They reaffirmed their faith in fundamental

human rights. They pledged to establish an environment in

which international law and treaty obligations would be

observed, and to promote the economic and social progress

of all peoples. The United Nations has succeeded in

keeping its basic promise of saving the world from the

holocaust of a global conflict.

But more than 50 years after the Charter was written,

we cannot conclude that the world today is a safer place

than it was when the United Nations was founded. Global

nuclear disarmament remains a distant dream. Nuclear

weapons and weapons of mass destruction have proliferated

with no concern for the safety of humankind despite the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and

the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Members of

the nuclear club that possess these weapons show no

inclination to dismantle them even though the cold war has

ended and conflicts between States have lessened. The

United Nations has the responsibility to redouble its efforts

to achieve global disarmament. That is a duty we owe to

mankind, to unborn generations. We do not accept the

thesis that these weapons are safe in the hands of some.

The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has been

demanding for a long time that the Conference on

Disarmament should establish, as its highest priority, a

committee to commence negotiations on a programme for

the complete elimination of nuclear weapons within a time

bound framework.

In 1976 my mother, Mrs. Sirimavo R. D.

Bandaranaike, addressing the Assembly as Prime Minister

of Sri Lanka and chairperson of the Movement of Non-

Aligned Countries, spoke of disarmament in the following

words:

“General and complete disarmament has been

a declared objective of the United Nations and of the

international community for nearly three decades.

“Despite many initiatives taken by this

Organization ... the world has witnessed not even the

semblance of disarmament but a race for supremacy

in destructive power, based on the myth that peace

can be preserved only by strident and single-minded

preparations for war and the refinement and

sophistication of its techniques. It is, indeed, a sad

reflection on the moral and intellectual standards of

the twentieth century and of its values and priorities

that so much of the world’s resources, which might

have been devoted to the eradication of poverty,

ignorance, disease and hunger, are being [wasted on]

the production of monstrous weapons ...

“[We] do not accept the thesis that

disarmament is the special preserve of Powers that

possess the paraphernalia of war. Every nation and

every individual has a right to peace, and just as

peace is indivisible so is the responsibility for its

preservation. Hence the call of the non-aligned

nations for a special session of the General

Assembly devoted to disarmament and agreement for

a world conference.” (A/31/PV.11, paras. 37-39)

At the recently concluded Non-Aligned Movement

Summit, held in South Africa under the chairmanship of

President Nelson Mandela, the Movement once again

expressed its preoccupation with the issue of global

nuclear disarmament. In the years ahead the clamour for

disarmament among the great majority of nations will

grow in volume. The Non-Aligned Movement has

consistently called for the Geneva-based Conference on

Disarmament to establish, as the highest priority, an ad

hoc committee to commence negotiations on a programme

for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons within a

time-bound framework. In addition, there is also a

proposal for a nuclear weapons convention. We have to

address these challenges as we approach the new

millennium. The longer we shirk our responsibility, the

greater the danger that looms ahead.

23

Today I have the honour and privilege of addressing

the Assembly as the newly appointed chairperson of the

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

(SAARC), which met in Colombo a few months ago.

SAARC represents one fifth of humanity. South Asia is heir

to a rich and complex plurality of cultural and religious

traditions of great antiquity.

Like any other association of sovereign States, we

have our share of problems. But I wish to convey my

confident belief that our summit meetings last year and this

year have marked a turning point in the life of our

association. Our leaders are aware of the awesome

obligations that we jointly owe to the hundreds of millions

of people who inhabit our region. We are determined to put

aside the political differences that bedevil relations among

some of us, in a common and united effort to improve the

quality of life of our peoples.

The message I bring from the Colombo Summit is that

the prospects for enhanced economic, technological, social

and scientific cooperation in our region are exceedingly

bright. It is the will of our leaders, as vigorously manifested

at the Colombo Summit. I am deeply indebted to my fellow

Heads of State and Government for their invaluable advice

and cooperation, and especially to the Prime Ministers of

India and Pakistan for the magnificent spirit of friendship

and understanding they showed for the collective regional

interests and concerns.

SAARC too, like the Non-Aligned Movement,

recognizes that the twin currents of globalization and

liberalization which are swirling around us contain both the

potential for prosperity as well as the seed of a dangerous

new process of uneven development. It must be

remembered that developing countries need special

consideration in regard to the problems they face in

globalizing their economies.

However, what is abundantly clear is that not a single

State, not even the most powerful, can hope to remain

immune from economic disease and contagion. Ripples

have spread widely from the economic upheavals of East

Asia and Russia. The maladies that spring from economic

globalization require remedies which are global in scope,

remedies which must take account of the ailments of all

States and not be based solely on the prescriptions

advanced by those who may seem to be secure.

United Nations bodies must play a critical role in all

this, particularly by facilitating and fostering international

cooperation for equitable development that could resist the

economic contagion that now afflicts us. The international

monetary mechanism has proved desperately inadequate

in handling the recent crises. We now have to think in

terms of a new financial architecture to obtain radical

reforms of the international monetary system. This should

aim at achieving a balance between the adjustments

demanded as against available financing.

I wish to propose three areas of action that merit

serious consideration: first, that a “lender of last resort”

facility must be formulated to meet the problems of

volatile capital movements; secondly, that effective

international surveillance devices must be designed to

anticipate problems before the demolition squads of

speculators move in; and thirdly, that the resumption of

the Special Drawing Rights of the International Monetary

Fund (IMF) be a vital requirement of the proposed

restructuring. The major voting Powers of the IMF, as

well as the developing nations, will have to consider

larger allocations than are now contemplated. In the

meantime, we should beware of attempts to liberalize

capital accounts before the modernization of national

financial structures and the reforms of the international

monetary system are in place.

A constructive dialogue between developed and

developing countries must be pursued on the basis of

mutual benefit and shared responsibilities. Closer

consultation should be promoted between groups like the

Group of 7, the G-77 and the G-15.

Institutions such as the World Trade Organization

must live up to their declared aims and genuinely

facilitate a transparent, rule-based trading system that

would permit stable growth. The United Nations

Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

should not be neglected. It should be strengthened as the

focal point in the United Nations family for the integrated

consideration of issues of trade, finance, technology and

investment.

More funds for development activity need to be

diverted from the United Nations administrative budget.

The United Nations Agenda for Development, which was

launched with great expectations, seems to be losing

momentum. Its implementation should not be delayed.

Development is not merely a matter of economic

growth and financial enrichment, to be measured in

statistics, which can sometimes be misleading and

illusory. The totality of the human condition must be

enhanced and improved. Our commitment and

24

responsibility towards economic and social development

should not be minimized and made secondary to other

issues which, though important, do not touch on the well-

being of humanity. It is a grievous indictment on us that the

age-old problems of grinding poverty and starvation still

exist in today’s world. I appeal to the assembled nations not

to allow ourselves to be beguiled or dazzled by the

explosion of exciting new technologies, the seductive

blandishments of global trade and high finance to the extent

that the poor, the deprived, the desperate fall away from

our agenda into the limbo of forgotten things. We must not

forget that the least developed countries have special

problems that cry out for attention. We must strive

mightily, relentlessly, to banish these problems in the next

century.

The G-77 has proposed that a third world summit be

held in the year 2000 to mark the dawn of the new century.

Sri Lanka supports the proposal as an opportunity for

developing countries to chart their own agenda for

development in the new era.

The countries of SAARC agreed at Colombo that to

complement economic progress, a Social Charter should be

drawn up for the benefit of our peoples in South Asia. This

would focus on determining practical, basic norms in the

areas of poverty eradication, the empowerment of women,

the mobilization of youth, the promotion of health and

nutrition, and the protection of children.

We must make a special effort to dissipate the effects

of the discriminatory, social and psychological perceptions

that affect the status of women. The SAARC heads of State

or Government condemned violence against women as well

as acts of discrimination and humiliation which further

depress the dignity of women. There was particular concern

over the plight of women and girl children caught in

situations of armed conflict.

In Colombo, the SAARC States finalized the draft text

of a regional convention on combating the crime of

trafficking in women and children for prostitution, which

will be signed at the next summit in Nepal. Within Sri

Lanka, my Government has adopted a national plan of

action based on the relevant conclusions of the Fourth

World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, and on the

specifics of our own national situation. The Constitution of

Sri Lanka enshrines the fundamental right of equality

between the sexes. We have ratified International Labour

Organization (ILO) Conventions guaranteeing equal

remuneration and other benefits to women. We have

strengthened legal provisions against harassment and

sexual abuse of women.

With regard to children, my Government has

recently passed legislation to set up a National Child

Protection Authority directly under my supervision. This

Authority deals with such issues as child employment, the

sexual exploitation of children, education, health and the

plight of children trapped in armed conflict. We have

formulated a “Children’s Charter” and a National Plan of

Action to provide for the safety and protection of our

children. While we are conscious of the tragic incidence

of child prostitution and pornography in our country, we

have also traced the insidious international linkages which

aggravate the problem further. We urge the international

community to tighten laws and enforcement mechanisms

to ensure that those responsible for such heinous crimes

will not receive refuge anywhere.

A particularly cruel offence against the innocence of

children is their forced recruitment by a terrorist group in

Sri Lanka to serve as suicide killers in the name of a

cause they are too young even to comprehend.

This is just one sordid aspect of the activities of a

terrorist group known as the Tamil Tigers — or the

LTTE. They seek to dismember Sri Lanka, with the

objective of creating in our land a monoethnic and racist

entity — an objective totally unacceptable to the

overwhelming majority in the country and even to the

very community whose cause the LTTE claims to

represent.

We believe that ethnic grievances exist in Sri Lanka.

I said so in my address to the nation at the fiftieth

anniversary celebrations of our independence this year. I

said that the golden jubilee of independence was an

occasion for reflection, as well as the renewal of hopes

and aspirations. It was an occasion to savour applause for

our achievements and also to rue the consequences of

failure. I said:

“We must also with humility examine our failures.

We have failed in the essential task of nation-

building. We have meandered and faltered along that

path, whilst among our neighbours in Asia and in

many other countries, peoples of various racial,

religious and linguistic communities live in

harmony. The causes of this failure will be judged

by history. Others will apportion and assign blame.

25

“Let us, those of us who have undertaken the

responsibility to guide and govern the Nation, march

towards the future in unison, putting behind us mean

desires for petty personal or political gain. The

Nation’s need today is so great and urgent that it

permits space only for largesse of heart and mind,

which will supersede in the national interest all that is

irrelevant and small.”

My Government is firmly committed to redressing

ethnic grievances peacefully through political discussion.

We have presented a comprehensive proposal for

addressing the ethnic grievances through a wide devolution

of political power. The vast majority of our people, of all

communities, have welcomed these proposals. Only the

LTTE chooses to prowl the path of violence, resorting to

terror to achieve goals which it alone espouses. However,

we have kept the doors open to the LTTE to join other Sri

Lankans in negotiating a settlement of all outstanding ethnic

issues if it eschews terrorism and its bloody call for a

separate State.

The LTTE claims to be a “liberation organization”

while it murders hundreds upon hundreds of the Tamil

people it claims to liberate when they disagree with the

LTTE’s terror politics. Several Tamil leaders of democratic

political parties, including members of parliament and two

mayors, as well as Tamil human rights activists, have been

brutally murdered by the LTTE. Its claim to be a

“liberation organization” is negated by its unilateral resort

to violence and its constant refusal to put its claims to the

true test — that of participating in an open, democratic,

peaceful process of consultation with the people.

By contrast, in Palestine, Chairman Arafat pursues

what he calls “the peace of the brave”, confident not only

of the justice of his cause, but also of the strength of

support freely given by the Palestinian people to achieve

their inalienable right in Palestine. During the SAARC

summit, we expressed growing concern at numerous

setbacks affecting the peace process in the Middle East,

including illegal attempts to change the jurisdiction and the

borders of Jerusalem.

Over the past few years the Government of Sri Lanka

has in various international forums strongly advocated the

need for collective international action in order to overcome

the scourge of terrorism. Our reasoning has been that a

group like the ruthless LTTE, which continues to frustrate

every effort at finding a negotiated political settlement to

our ethnic problem, has found sustenance in the liberal

asylum policies that prevail in some countries. This group,

which recruits children as young as 10 years,

indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, assassinates the

elected representatives of the people, including Tamil

political and human rights leaders, destroys places of

religious worship and assassinates foreign heads of

Government on their soil, is permitted to operate freely in

many countries. It maintains an international network

which engages in fund-raising, narcotics trafficking, trade

in illicit arms, the smuggling of illegal immigrants and, in

more recent times, maritime and cyber-terrorism.

Addressing the United Nations fiftieth anniversary

celebrations in New York three years ago, I observed:

“Concerted international action is essential to combat

terrorism and to compel the terrorists to renounce

violence and enter the democratic process.

Unfortunately, effective action to that end has been

frustrated through sterile philosophical debate about

the nature of terrorism.” (A/50/PV.35, p. 9)

I am happy to note that since then significant

measures have been taken. The adoption of the United

Nations International Convention for the Suppression of

Terrorist Bombings earlier this year has been a

considerable moral victory for the international

community in its fight against terrorism. Sri Lanka is

hopeful that all States will speedily take steps to

implement the necessary domestic legislation, aimed at

giving effect to the commitments made in the Convention,

to ensure that terrorists are neither provided safe haven

nor permitted to raise funds within the borders of one

State to sustain terrorist activities in another State.

While we enact legislation, we must also be eternally

vigilant to ensure that terrorists do not find loopholes in

our laws to circumvent the emerging international

consensus against terrorism. We are particularly conscious

of the capacity of terrorist groups to resort to the strategy

of using front organizations for raising funds which end

up in the LTTE war chest to contribute towards

murdering and brutalizing our people. Moral and legal

sanctions against terrorists are not enough. Laws must be

effectively implemented. Only by such concerted action

shall we be able to ensure that terrorists are compelled to

renounce violence and enter the democratic process.

Here I would like to thank India and the United

States of America, in particular, for having recognized

and declared the LTTE to be the terrorist organization

that it is, as well as for encouraging my Government to

settle this problem by political means. I would like to add

26

here that this is an internal problem that Sri Lanka is fully

able and ready to resolve, with the full support of its

peoples. We will not tolerate any outside interference, while

we appreciate all the support given us by our friends abroad

in resolving this conflict.

If at this stage I mention Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi of

Myanmar it is because I am personally aware of the

loneliness, the anguish, the difficulties and dangers that a

woman leader faces in political life. The people of Sri

Lanka and the people of Myanmar and their Governments

have been friends over many centuries. Our peoples share

an invaluable heritage — the timeless message of the

Buddha, the enlightened one who taught the world the

meaning of compassion, tolerance and understanding. This

message moves me to express the hope that political issues

in Myanmar may be approached in a spirit of conciliation

and tolerance.

In all this, a catalytic role can and must be played by

the United Nations system. The United Nations has passed

its half-century mark. The Secretary-General has described

the United Nations as “a noble experiment in human

cooperation”. Last year was designated the year of United

Nations reform, and we are happy that a major portion of

the reforms introduced have been implemented. Some

others require further study.

We are aware of the financial crisis the United Nations

is facing due to the default of certain Member States in

paying their contributions. We urge them to pay their dues

fully, without conditions and on time.

We are disappointed that agreement has not been

reached over the reconstitution of the Security Council to

reflect better the generality of United Nations membership.

The Council should be more representative, and its

deliberations more transparent and democratic, thus

responding to the concerns of all and shedding its image,

not entirely inaccurate, of largely serving the interests of

the major Powers.

In the closing years of the present millennium, the

world is a far more complex place than it was when the

United Nations Charter was adopted. The range and

ramifications of the issues with which the Organization

must contend have dramatically increased. Change in the

orientation of the United Nations must keep pace with new

realities. The Secretary-General’s Programme for Reform

is a step in the right direction. Yet nothing will contribute

more to the success of the United Nations than the extent

of Member States’ commitment to the Organization’s

decisions. The credibility and strength of those decisions

will itself depend on the transparency of the decision-

making process and on how closely Member States

identify with those decisions. If the United Nations is to

continue on its voyage into the twenty-first century with

renewed vigour, to achieve its objectives of peace,

security, economic development and social reform, all its

Members must be empowered to participate meaningfully

and at every level of the decision-making process.

To this end, two important reforms must be placed

on our agenda. First, the enlargement of the Security

Council so that it will more fully represent two thirds of

the world populace is an indispensable requirement. The

developing nations and the regions of the world in which

they predominate must have permanent representation on

the Security Council.

Secondly, the crucial role of the General Assembly

in the decision-making process of the United Nations

must be recognized and guaranteed. The United Nations

General Assembly is the supreme parliament of mankind.

Today the era of the cold war is over. Economic

globalization is breaking down national boundaries to an

extent that would have been unimaginable a few decades

ago. The world is truly on the threshold of a new order

which surely cannot be driven any more by the narrow

national concerns that have paralysed the imagination of

mankind for so long. Never before in human history have

we been presented with the stupendous possibilities that

surround us today of breaking the mundane bonds that

bind us to banality and triviality. When the unconquered,

unconquerable spirit of mankind is allowed to soar to its

full potential we will achieve a world in which truth and

justice prevail, a world which we can proudly bequeath to

the unborn generations of our peoples.

Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, my late

father, addressing this Assembly at its eleventh session, in

1956, spoke as follows:

“In an Organization such as this, the service that a

country can render ... is not to be measured alone by

the size of that country, its population, its power or

its strength. This is an Organization which expresses

itself most effectively by bringing to bear a certain

moral force — the collective moral force and

decency of human beings. That is a task in which

the weak as well as the strong can render a useful

service, and I give the Assembly the assurance, on

behalf of my country, that as far as we are

27

concerned, every endeavour that we can make in all

sincerity to assist in the achievements of those noble

ideals for which this Organization stands will always

be forthcoming in the fullest measure.” (A/PV.590,

para. 42)

Addressing this Assembly 42 years later, I make bold

to say that Sri Lanka remains a loyal and dedicated

Member of this Organization. We have made a contribution

to the quality of its deliberations and to the implementation

of its programmes. We are deeply committed to the

principles of the Charter. We believe in the United Nations.

We want it to be a strong, principled and effective body,

the common inheritance of all mankind, not the preserve of

a few wealthy and powerful States, but the guardian of all,

especially the poor, the weak and the defenceless.