Zambia, 1999

I join other speakers who have

already addressed the Assembly, Sir, in congratulating

you on your well-deserved election as President of the

General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session. Your

unanimous election is a clear demonstration of the

confidence this Assembly has in you and in your country,

Namibia, with which my country enjoys very friendly and

warm relations. It is especially significant that you come

from Namibia, a country whose independence stands as

a crowning moment in our Organization’s support for the

right of peoples under colonial and foreign domination to

self-determination and independence. I am confident that,

given your experience and diplomatic skills, you will

guide the work of this session successfully.

I wish to take this opportunity to commend your

predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Didier Opertti of

Uruguay, for the able manner in which he presided over

the fifty-third session.

In the same vein, I would like to place on record my

country’s deepest appreciation of the work of the

Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan,

whose leadership is well respected and has given new

impetus to the implementation of the United Nations

reform programme.

19

As you rightly observed in your statement to this

Assembly, Sir, the fifty-fourth session is the last to be

convened in the twentieth century, a century that saw the

creation of the United Nations from the ashes and ravages

of the Second World War. Indeed, the world cannot but

thank the founding fathers of our Organization for their

foresight and wisdom. The relevance of this Organization

has continued to grow since its inception, and is today

exemplified by the universality of its membership, which

has grown from the original 51 States in 1945 to the

present 188 States.

It goes without saying that since the membership of

the United Nations has been growing, there should have

been a continuous and corresponding process of reform of

the decision-making structures and processes of the

Organization in order to make the world body as

representative as possible. It is a matter of considerable

disappointment, however, that while reform of the

administrative structures has, to a large degree, been

accomplished, reform of the Security Council has not

moved in tandem.

As members are all aware, the creation of the United

Nations was intended to strengthen international peace and

security. Regrettably, a number of States continue to be

threatened in our time by the dangerous proliferation of

small arms and light weapons acquired by non-state entities.

The continued proliferation and illegal transfer of small

arms, among other factors, are responsible for the supply of

the weapons being used in conflict situations across the

African continent. I would therefore like to appeal to all

Member States to support and strengthen the United

Nations monitoring mechanisms on the transfer of these

arms, particularly to non-state entities, in order to forestall

this problem.

Related to the problem of small arms is the question

of landmines planted in large tracts of land in many

countries, rendering unusable what otherwise is productive

land. The impact of landmines has also had a telling toll on

the provision of social services in the affected countries. I

equally appeal to Member States, parties to the United

Nations Convention on the Prohibition of the Use,

Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel

Mines and on Their Destruction, to implement the Maputo

Declaration and programme of action, adopted in May this

year. Only a strong and viable United Nations can

constitute the much-needed viable vehicle to achieve this

goal.

My delegation is therefore deeply concerned about

the continued deterioration of the financial situation of the

United Nations. This situation is well known to all of us

in this Assembly, as it has been the focus of our

discussions for the past five years. Reform of the United

Nations will not be implemented effectively if the

financial situation is not seriously addressed. It is the

inescapable duty of all of us to honour our obligations by

ensuring that we pay our assessed contributions in full, on

time and without conditions. This will enable the

Organization to function smoothly and more effectively to

execute the mandate we have entrusted to it.

That among many other reasons is why we want to

build strong economies in Africa to enable us shoulder

our obligations. But external debt remains both a burden

and a major impediment to the development process of

many developing countries, including my country,

Zambia. While we welcome the recent outcome of the

Group of Eight meeting held in Cologne, Germany, on

the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt (HIPC)

Initiative, the measures for faster, broader and deeper debt

relief, in our view, will not be sufficient to resolve the

external debt problem of developing countries, especially

the poorest among them, unless they are translated into

real tangible, practical economic development

programmes.

It is the view of my Government that the Group of

Eight target for debt relief of about $100 billion for the

poorest countries in the world, the majority of which are

in Africa, will have little effect on the problem unless the

terms of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt

Initiative are further revised in such a way as to make

them more flexible and better tailored to suit the specific

conditions of the targeted countries.

Many of us in the developing countries understand

that, in order to survive and contribute positively in the

global markets, we need to make our economies more

competitive. In this regard, many of our countries have

embarked on the implementation of structural adjustment

programmes. Our efforts are, however, hampered by the

huge debt burden which takes away large amounts of

resources from our countries through debt servicing. The

declining levels of official development assistance and

foreign direct investment to our countries, combined with

the debt burden, have made economic reforms difficult

and have slowed down the pace of economic growth and

development.

20

The solution to this is for all concerned to approach

the question of debt with open minds, with a view to

finding a lasting solution to the problem.

Added to that problem is the spread of HIV/AIDS.

This is a matter of grave concern to my country and to

Africa as a whole. This disease has continued to overwhelm

the continent and to rob it of its meagre material and

financial resources through devastation of its youthful and

active population. It is therefore necessary for all humanity

to rise to regard HIV/AIDS as a global problem and to act

in unison. I therefore call upon the international community

to redouble its efforts in fighting this scourge. Let me take

this opportunity to report to this body that last week, from

12 to 16 September 1999, Zambia hosted the eleventh

International Conference on AIDS and Sexually

Transmitted Diseases in Africa. The holding of that

Conference, which adopted a programme of action to fight

the spread of this deadly disease in Africa in the twenty-

first century, is among other things a demonstration of the

African continent’s commitment to fight against this deadly

disease. It is my hope that the United Nations will therefore

embrace the outcome of the Conference and provide the

necessary leadership in the fight against this pandemic,

which threatens the very survival of humankind. The AIDS

problem deserves our collective moral and political will to

combat it successfully.

Let me now turn to the phenomenon of the conflicts

which have continued to bedevil Africa. In our own

Southern African subregion, the conflicts in Angola and the

Democratic Republic of the Congo are not only a threat to

peace and security but have also been a major impediment

to the economic development of the region.

The resumption of hostilities in Angola in December

1998, after four years of relative peace following the

signing of the Lusaka Protocol, is regrettable. As the

Assembly is aware, this unfortunate state of affairs was

occasioned by the intransigence of UNITA with regard to

the implementation of the remaining tasks under the Lusaka

Protocol. Every effort should therefore be made to bring an

end to the hostilities.

With regard to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the

Assembly will recall that on 2 August 1998 a conflict

erupted in that country. In response to this serious

development, a series of efforts by regional heads of State

and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) were

immediately undertaken in search of a peaceful solution to

the conflict. At the summit held at Victoria Falls,

Zimbabwe, from 7 to 8 September 1998, the regional heads

of State mandated me to chair the regional mediation

effort, with the assistance of OAU.

For a period of almost a year, I have, on behalf of

our region, carried out exhaustive consultations inside and

outside Zambia, and convened a number of meetings at

the level of experts and Foreign Affairs and Defence

Ministers.

Let me state here that, right from the outset, regional

leaders acknowledged the need to involve the Congolese

rebel movement in the mediation process to ensure that

the outcome would be respected by and acceptable to all.

The process initially engaged the rebel movement through

a proximity mechanism. Later, however, the rebels, who

now included the Movement for the Liberation of the

Congo (MLC), were invited to participate directly in the

peace talks with all the other parties to the conflict.

On 10 July 1999, our perseverance on the regional

and Pan-African levels finally paid off when heads of

State of all the six States parties to the conflict signed the

Ceasefire Agreement in Lusaka. Unfortunately, a split in

the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) the previous

May led to differences over who should sign the

Agreement on behalf of the movement, which prevented

them from appending their signature on that occasion.

The other non-State party to the conflict, the MLC, also

chose not to sign the Agreement until the differences

within the RCD were resolved.

In order to secure the signatures of the RCD and the

MLC, I was mandated by the regional heads of State to

carry out further consultations with the two movements.

I am pleased to inform the Assembly that these efforts

culminated in the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement by

the MLC and the RCD on 1 August and 31 August 1999

respectively.

Allow me at this juncture to place on record my

sincere appreciation for the cooperation and assistance I

received from all my colleagues in the region and other

African leaders, the United Nations, OAU and the

Southern African Development Community (SADC) in

the execution of my mandate. The Ceasefire Agreement

is an all-embracing document which addresses all aspects

of the conflict, including the security concerns of all the

countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of the

Congo.

I wish to inform the Assembly that the

implementation process of the Agreement has already

21

begun in earnest. Both the Political Committee and the

Joint Military Commission met on 2 and 3 September 1999

in Lusaka with the participation of all members except the

MLC, whose representatives were not able to travel to

Lusaka because of logistical constraints.

Among the issues considered by the meetings were:

first, the formal installation of the Chairman of the

Commission, Brigadier-General Rachid Lallali, from

Algeria; the budget of the Joint Military Commission; its

structures; and its programme of work.

The representative of OAU briefed the meetings on

OAU activities in support of the peace process in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the United Nations

representative briefed them on the relationship that is

expected to prevail between the United Nations and the

Joint Military Commission. The Commission is scheduled

to meet again on 10 October 1999.

For peace to prevail in the Democratic Republic of

Congo, United Nations support for the successful and

comprehensive implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement

is of paramount importance. For this reason, I wish to

commend the Secretary-General for his timely and positive

response in sending a team of military liaison personnel to

the region. The United Nations must move more

expeditiously than it has in the past if the job it does is to

be commensurate with the tasks facing it in the field.

To this end, I make an earnest appeal to the United

Nations that the Organization, first, should authorize and

support the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping

force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with an

appropriate mandate and, on an appropriate scale, based on

the assessed needs on the ground; second, it should quickly

dispatch the technical survey team to the Democratic

Republic of the Congo in addition to the team of military

liaison personnel which has already been sent to that

country and some of its neighbours; third, it should make

available adequate resources for the peacekeeping mission;

fourth, it should extend necessary and adequate support to

facilitate the process of internal dialogue within the

Democratic Republic of the Congo; fifth, it should help in

the mobilization of humanitarian assistance for the

Congolese refugees and internally displaced persons and

facilitate their return and resettlement; and sixth, it should

assist with resources for the economic reconstruction of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo.

I need not remind the Assembly of the solemn and

important responsibility that the United Nations bears on

behalf of us all in the maintenance of international peace

and security. It is, therefore, incumbent upon it to ensure

that peace prevails in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo. To this end, it should learn from the lessons of

the past and avoid costly mistakes.

Time is of the essence. What is equally of the

essence is the need to address the root causes of the

poverty confronting third world countries. The world

community must tackle those root causes with speed and

urgency.

This session of the General Assembly is meeting

against a backdrop of growing tensions and armed

conflicts, especially in the third world. These

developments, coming towards the close of the twentieth

century, are an indictment of the world’s global

structures, which pose today, more than at any other time

in history, a challenge to the very articles of faith upon

which this organization was founded. The challenges

cannot be wished away, nor can they be remedied by

empty words. Global poverty can be eradicated only with

a concerted global programme. Solving the issue of

poverty would solve the problem of conflict and

instability in the developing countries, and unless the

world addresses these underlying causes of conflict, they

will continue to be major sources of friction that will

threaten and undermine international peace and security.

Events in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in

Kosovo and now in East Timor cannot but exert more

pressure on the time and resources of the international

community in general and particularly on the Security

Council. But this is the mission of that world body: to

attend to just such areas of conflict. Admittedly, these are

the most perilous times Africa has ever faced. The

multiple dangers of armed conflict and general political

instability and the ever-growing danger posed by the

HIV/AIDS pandemic can only call for concerted joint

world efforts to help reduce the dangers that face Africa

and the world in general.

There are various ways the world can come to the

aid of Africa, the most important of which are through

aid and by creating conditions to make it possible for

Africa to trade with the international community on terms

acceptable to all. Africa is not asking for charity. No,

Africa is asking for genuine trade. Africa is not asking for

arms. No, Africa is asking for fair and equitable

recompense for its labour and resources. Africa is not

asking for pity, but genuine partnership based on mutual

interests.

22

The relationship between poverty and political

instability can no longer be in any way doubted. It is not

good enough for the developed world to demand good

governance — an indefinable term — while creating

conditions of poverty by bad governance in the economic

area. Justice must prevail in our economic relations in order

to lay the foundation for political and social justice.

A start should now be made by reviewing the

inequitable conditions imposed by the World Trade

Organization, which, if maintained, will only ensure

continued marginalization of third world countries,

condemning them to poverty and further instability.

I am quite aware that this forum may not be the

appropriate one for addressing these issues, but it definitely

has the right people to address the issues I have raised.

Therefore, my fervent prayer and hope is that we enter the

new millennium with a renewed sense of unity of purpose

to eradicate manifest global injustices and create a more

equitable world where want will not create chaos and

instability.