The nations speak.

The three-week general debate, which traditionally keynotes the opening of the General Assembly session, in 1993 was called "remarkable . . . for its vision and sense of purpose in addressing the global agenda for the rest of this century and beyond". So said 48th General Assembly President Samuel R. Insanally of Guyana in a statement on 13 October at the conclusion of the annual exercise, which took place between 2 7 September and 13 October and in which a record number of 175 speakers participated.

Among them were 28 Heads of State, 2 Crown Princes, 13 Prime Ministers, 107 Foreign Ministers, 15 Deputy Prime Ministers, 2 other Ministers and 8 Chairmen of delegations.

The "collective review of the international political, economic and social situation" made by representatives of nations around the globe had provided "thoughtful insights", President Insanally said.

It had been "truly encouraging to perceive, notwithstanding the grave uncertainties now prevailing in international relations", that there existed a widespread optimism about the UN's capacity to satisfy its membership's expectations and needs.

There seemed to be a renewed commitment by all States to UN Charter principles and purposes and a ready acknowledgement of the concept of interdependence. "We must seek to infuse this unity of spirit into our deliberations as we come to address the many issues on our agenda", he told delegates.

The end of the cold war had "revealed and released ethnic and nationalist tensions which had been repressed, and brought back behaviour which we thought had receded far into history", Mr. Insanally went on.

There was now stronger support than ever for UN preventive diplomacy, for peacemaking and peace-keeping, "reflecting the bold plans" set out by UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in his "An Agenda for Peace" in June 1992.

The Assembly President was especially pleased to see a ready disposition to complement the "Agenda for Peace" with a new "Agenda for Development", in order to address urgent economic and social problems confronting the majority of peoples on earth.

Statements by national representatives, he said, had invariably stressed the need for maximum international economic cooperation to improve the global economy and more particularly the disadvantaged situation of the developing countries.

Many positive ideas - encompassing the issues of debt, development assistance, trade and preservation of the environment - had emerged from that comprehensive analysis.

Equally noteworthy had been the eagerness with which delegations seemed prepared to advance the Assembly's work to reform and restructure the UN in order to make it more adaptable to the times. "There is a distinct perception in the House that many if not all of the organs, as presently conceived and constituted, are ill-suited to prevailing circumstances and to the satisfaction of our many needs", he stated.

Considerable focus had been placed on the Security Council which, in the eyes of many, required enlargement and more transparent operations. Great interest was also expressed in strengthening economic and social bodies and revitalizing the Assembly's role under the Charter.

AFRICA

Continuing conflicts and the progressively deteriorating economic situation in Africa were among the main concerns of African speakers. Delegates called for expanding the Security Council and giving a permanent seat on that body to Africa.

Speakers lamented the failure to bring an end to the conflict in Angola - perceived by many as the most difficult in the region - and voiced concern over situations in Mozambique, Somalia, Burundi, South Africa and Western Sahara, among others. Some positive developments were also noted, especially the peace accords signed for Liberia and Rwanda. Calls were made for lifting sanctions against Libya.

It was widely noted that during the 1980s, Africa's share of the world gross national product had plummeted, as had its shares of foreign private investment inflows and world trade. Africa's burgeoning external debt stood close to $300 billion. Although more than 30 African countries had committed themselves to structural adjustment programmes, it was stressed that the international community had not fully met its commitments under the New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s.

ASIA, PACIFIC

Most speakers from Asia praised the Israeli-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) agreement as an important step towards peace in the Middle East. Also acclaimed was the return of peace and normality to Cambodia in the wake of UN-sponsored elections there. One delegate noted that for the first time in recent memory, South-East Asia was free of major armed conflict.

However, the unstable situation in the former Soviet Union gave reason for worry, as did the absence of a solution to the Cyprus problem. Some called for the end of sanctions against Iraq, while others said the Iraqi regime unfairly blamed the international community.

Asian delegates also wanted Security Council reform and action to close the yawning gap between developed and developing countries. A constructive North-South dialogue had to be based on genuine interdependence, mutuality of interests and benefits, and shared responsibility. Also of concern were the problems of small island developing States and the environment.

LATIN AMERICA,

CARIBBEAN

With democracy and peace taking hold through most of the region, the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean said that they must focus even greater attention on development issues. For development to take root, however, these countries must tackle a daunting array of economic problems, including trade barriers, high debt and insufficient international aid.

Delegates asked for greater market access for their products. Many voiced hope that the conclusion of the Uruguay Round on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade would bolster production. Greater regional integration was also seen as a way towards stronger economies. Speakers urged the UN to adopt the proposed "Agenda for Development".

There was support for further UN assistance in establishing democracy in Haiti and reconstructing its economy. The movement towards peace in El Salvador and elsewhere in Central America was commended.

EAST and WEST EUROPE,

OTHER STATES

Concerns over new security problems, such as the "resurgence of ethno-nationalism", were widely voiced by representatives of both Eastern and Western Europe and of other States. The violent Yugoslav conflict - the bloodiest in Europe since the Second World War - was a pertinent case in point, and most speakers sought to suggest ways and means of achieving peace in that region.

Much depended on humanity's capacity to think clearly about how to react to those new challenges and adjust its institutions - including the UN - accordingly. Although not always effective, UN peace-keeping held the promise of resolving many of the current conflicts, some delegates felt. UN peace-keeping operations should be flexible, with more training and concern for personnel safety.

Although the threat of war had diminished with the end of the cold war, disarmament still figured prominently on the international security agenda. A cause for particular concern were armaments of the "nuclear heirs to the Soviet Union" - Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

ALGERIA

Foreign Minister Mohamed Salah Dembri said his country would continue to oppose "every outside attempt at destabilization", tolerating no interference in its internal affairs. In Western Sahara, Algeria worked steadily and resolutely for success in building a united Maghreb, urging the two parties to resolve outstanding questions without delay. Algeria hoped that outstanding humanitarian questions resulting from the Iraq/Kuwait situation would soon be resolved "so that the collective conscience of the Arab peoples may be able finally to heal itself of the scars of the Gulf War". Algeria expressed solidarity with the Bosnian people, particularly Muslims who had been victims of untold hardships. In spite of the Security Council's many resolutions, acquisition of territory by force, "ethnic cleansing" and trampling of international law still prevailed. Algeria appealed to the international community to help protect Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

ANGOLA

Foreign Minister Venacio de Moura said that thousands of people died each day in the Angolan war. "The international community seems insensitive to our tragedy. It is as if the Angolan people were paying the price for playing the democratic game." Angola questioned how the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), "a militarist organization incapable of conforming to democratic rules", still maintained offices in certain democratic countries where "ardent defenders of human rights" received its officials with great pomp. UNITA was "plotting a dangerous manoeuvre with the aim of shirking its obligation to fulfil the Bicesse Accords" and Security Council resolutions. The UN should compel UNITA to respect the results of the September 1992 elections. Nevertheless, while Angola favoured continued aid to developing nations, it rejected etats en echec - failed States - doctrine which claimed that certain countries could not resolve their problems by themselves and needed new "tutors".

BENIN

Robert Dossou, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, blamed major civil wars in Africa for "untold suffering and destruction", hampering efforts for socio-economic development. Without peace and security, courageous economic and political reforms could not be successful. Even West Africa, once a peaceful land of asylum, was experiencing an unprecedented increase in emergency situations. In less than four years, the number of refugees in that region had soared from 20,000 to 1.2 million. Meanwhile, Africa had been virtually left out in the new economic order, which was dominated by trade between three groups - Western Europe, North America and the Pacific-Asia zone. The developed North seemed to have less and less need for African products, and Africa no longer could afford the North's goods and services. The international community's failure to deal with Africa's debt burden would lead to a slow-down of world trade, directly affecting Africa's already suffering economies.

BOTSWANA

Foreign Minister Gaositwe K.T. Chiepe decried trends in Africa: falling commodity prices, heavy debt burden, shrinking aid flow and, in some places, drought and famine. Civil strife also had a crippling effect on economic activity. The international community must establish a more open trading system, giving access to and adequate compensation for African commodities. Botswana hoped for a speedy conclusion of the Uruguay Round, to strengthen Africa's trading capacity and promote its commodities. "Although the cold war is no more and old ideological empires have been unravelled, the euphoria of triumphalism has been short-lived. There is turmoil almost everywhere as age-old nationalisms that have for so long been suppressed explode with a vengeance that knows no limit. True to character, the twentieth century will not, so it seems, fade away peacefully."

BURKINA FASO

Foreign Minister Thomas Sanon said that heavy debt, a fall in raw material prices and natural disasters had Africa "staggering from one calamity to the next". Also, structural adjustment programmes had been "squeezing ever harder a continent that has been relegated to the sidelines". The New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s had yet to be implemented. By refusing to accept the election outcome in Angola, UNITA and its leader, Jonas Savimbi, had "torpedoed" the process sponsored by the UN and the international community. In Mozambique, the Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana (RENAMO) should pursue the path of negotiations and move resolutely with the Government towards reconcillation and reconstruction. After an encouraging start, UN action in Somalia was running into obstacles adversely affecting the peace-keeping operation. Dialogue and negotiation with all parties were necessary.

BURUNDI

President Melchoir Ndadaye said that Burundi was "bending every effort to achieve the gradual elimination of all the obstacles that have paralyzed or retarded the Burundi people's drive towards growth and overall development". The "triumph of democracy" in his country had resulted in the settlement of some 200,000 refugees. These "victims of tragedies of the past three decades" had chosen to return to their homeland, which welcomed them with open arms. Burundi supported action taken by the UN in cooperation with the Organization of African Unity to guarantee Rwanda a climate favouring genuine national reconciliation. The deployment of a neutral international force, as requested by the two parties, should be arranged as quickly as possible to consolidate peace in the subregion. Africa was going through a difficult economic period, and its economic recovery would be achieved when external debt was substantially cancelled and additional financial resources had been provided.

CAMEROON

Foreign Minister Ferdinand Leopold Oyono said that while measures were taken to settle certain regional conflicts, resources should be mobilized for reconstruction and humanitarian needs of African countries torn by armed conflicts. Such action would bolster the willingness of African Heads of State to assume greater responsibility in prevention, management and settlement of conflicts in their region. The adoption in Libreville in September 1993 of a non-aggression pact between 11 Member States of the Economic Community of Central African States was essential to reduce armed forces and military budgets in the subregion. It would be unrealistic to "circumscribe the exercise of democracy within national boundaries, when there are also flagrant injustices in international economic relations that constitute grave violations of human dignity". A victim of such injustices, Africa had the "characteristics of a continent adrift". Africa needed a consistent set of measures, such as a fund for financing African development, to stimulate recovery.

CAPE VERDE

President Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro said that African countries faced drought and desertification, social and economic strangulation exacerbated by armed conflicts, an economic system that responded more to other regions, and widespread poverty and poor living condition& Cape Verde had witnessed with deep concern the development of ethnic rivalries and internal struggles for power in Africa. Africa's resources were "wasted on the fire of armed conflicts". Developed countries should increase support for African development efforts, especially at a time when Africa had embarked on fundamental economic reforms through diversification and structural adjustments. In Angola, there was no alternative to negotiations. In Somalia, immediate efforts must be made to create a climate of security, political harmony and administrative normalcy. In Mozambique, the General Peace Agreements should be respected. In Liberia, the Security Council's decision to deploy an observer mission to assist in the implementation the Cotonou Agreement was commendable.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Foreign Minister Jean-Marie Bassia appealed for real solidarity among Member States, which would compel industrialized countries to support development in other countries, particularly in Africa. The economic condition of African countries was deteriorating, but the international community had not removed any of the obstacles to development, such as declining commodity prices, heavy debt burden and protectionism. If those factors persisted, there was no doubt that African countries would have even greater difficulty overcoming their situation. The time had come to bring about genuine democratization in UN decision-making bodies, in particular the Security Council. "The great developments in science and technology have today reduced our world to a global village where each and every one of us must feel directly affected by all the problems that exist on the various levels of international life:'

CHAD

Prime Minister Fidel Moungar said Chad was "passing from a long, dark night of instability, dictatorship, human rights violations and economic setbacks", but the heroic struggle of Chadians had led them onto the "path of democracy". Clear hope for peace in certain regions was emerging, yet war continued to cause unspeakable suffering elsewhere. Chad was concerned about the situations in Somalia and Angola, and it hoped that a firm UN position would help ensure respect for existing agreements. Chad urged the parties in Mozambique to achieve peace and welcomed the peace processes in Rwanda, Liberia and South Africa. Chad had appealed to the international Court of justice to settle a border dispute with Libya. It hoped that the restructuring and revitalization of the UN economic and social structure would contribute to strengthening the Organization's capacity to act.

COMOROS

Mouslim Ben Moussa, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Islamic Affairs, said that Comoros wanted the highest priority to resolve the "regrettable dispute" with France over Mayotte. International economic relations, marked by a "bipolar attitude", were responsible for the growing gap between rich and poor countries. "We believe in the ideals of peace and security, but we are firmly convinced that they cannot be fully achieved if famine, malnutrition, disease and natural disasters continue to be the lot of the majority of the States which make up the international community." Despite unemployment, reduced productivity and the need to support new States born of the fragmentation Eastern bloc, a new economic order was more likely today than yesterday. Developing countries must rely on themselves first and most. That was why structures for regional economic integration were emerging from Africa to the Orient.

CONGO

Benjamin Bounkoulou, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Francophonie, said that like most other African countries, Congo's economic and social situation was critical. Debt-servicing was becoming unbearable for developing countries' troubled economies. The international community must build a "new order based on more dynamic and more innovative North-South relations". Congo wanted an open and non-discriminatory international trade system, with specific agreements on commodity prices and the debt crisis. The New Agenda for the Development. of Africa in the 1990s had fallen far short of expectations. The promotion of confidence and security was becoming a new priority in Africa. The States of Central Africa were committed to the creation of a system of collective security through the promotion of confidence, security and development. The UN and the international community should support that initiative.

COTE D'IVOIRE

Foreign Minister Amara Essy said that Africa - a continent representing only 2 per cent of world trade - was becoming even more economically marginalized. The most recent United Nations Development Programme report on human development placed 41 African countries among the lowest 50 of 173 countries. This economic crisis was due in part to the collapse of commodity prices, the subsequent exacerbation of the foreign debt burden, general inadequacies in economic management, and intolerable rise in unemployment, particularly among youth. Extension of the democratic process in Africa was evident, but there could be neither democracy without economic development, nor genuine sustainable development without democracy. The international community must support African development efforts through adequate financial aid and strengthened scientific and technical capacities. The North-South dialogue must be reactivated to establish further means to eradicate underdevelopment and poverty - the greatest threats to the world today.

DJIBOUTI

Foreign Minister Abdou Bolock Abdou said the UN should have its own volunteer rapid-deployment force under Security Council control and the Secretary-General's command, trained an armed for limited and defensive actions and "provided with a logistical support capable of dealing with any eventuality". The Security Council should add a permanent member for each region. Djibouti deplored the "policy of double standards being pursued" by the UN, which "allows the criminals in Bosnia to operate with impunity". The UN must ensure that its resolutions are respected and complied with, or "'collective security."' will come to mean |selective security'". The poverty of the Third World, compounded by "artificial borders inherited from the colonial era", was another "catalyst for conflict". Those countries, "once buffer-States for the super-Powers", have become veritable arsenals and, with the added element of poverty the regimes in power thus tend to opt more often for force than for reason.

EGYPT

Foreign Minister Amre Moussa proposed that developing countries establish a "grouping for the Third World" to coordinate their positions on "political, economic and social aspects of various world issues" and "shape their contribution towards the laying of the foundations of the new world order". This Assembly had begun amid increasing optimism about solutions to the question of Palestine and the problem of South Africa. "We are encouraged by the initial outcome we saw recently on both the Palestinian-Israeli and the Jordanian-Israeli tracks and look forward to similar results on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks." The Middle East should become a weapon-free zone. The current world economic situation "remains in the hands of the industrialized countries". However, recession in industrialized countries has led to depression and increasing unemployment and poverty rates in developing countries. Developing countries - most in the throes of rigorous programmes of economic reform - were helpless before protectionist measures.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

Dimaso-Obiang Ndong, Permanent Representative to the UN, supported the Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa, which was working for peace and confidence-building among States of the subregion. "We are trying to prevent the emergence of conflicts in the subregion by developing measures to alleviate situations of conflict:' industrialized countries must understand the need to resolve, on mutually agreed terms, the external debt problem of underdeveloped countries. Developed countries -"which bear the greatest responsibility for the deterioration of the global ecosystem" - must help countries that had been asked to limit their legitimate right to use their natural assets. Equatorial Guinea rejected those who defamed its Government, claiming that "democracy imposed by foreign interests becomes corrupt and falls apart".

ERITREA

President Isaias Afwerki said: "Eritrea has not only secured peace and stability; it has made the rare achievement of establishing warm relations of cooperations with its former enemy, Ethiopia." Africa was "sliding back and being left behind" with poverty. suffering and desperation for millions of its people. "Many of the dictators who have sown so much havoc and suffering were in fact brought to power and sustained during the years of the cold war by sections of the international community." Africa's marginalization, poverty and desperation cannot be "walled in within the continent's boundaries", since it was bound to threaten global prosperity and stability. By and large, the international aid programme was "deeply flawed, unfair, unjust and in-structured to respond to the vital needs of recipient communities", with aid decided on the basis of the interests and agendas of donors. The international community was more responsive to putting out fires than to preventing them, and once the fires were put out it turned its back on "the smouldering combustible remains".

ETHIOPIA

Seyoum Mesfin, Foreign Minister for the Transitional Government said that, following Eritreans' decision for sovereign state Addis Ababa and Asmara had taken steps to forge an era of cooperation. The wounds of war had begun to heal, and building shared prosperity was progressing in earnest. Peace had provided Ethiopia with the chance to concentrate on reconstruction and laid the groundwork for sustainable development. The problem. of refugees and persons "displaced by a host of calamities" continued to haunt the Horn of Africa subregion. UNOSOM was a guarantor against a slide into anarchy in Somalia, and should continue its task until the objectives of the Addis Ababa Agreement were fully achieved. Humanitarian work should be absolutely depoliticized. Those who hampered the delivery of relief aid to the needy were "criminals". Likewise, those who held human survival hostage to their political agendas should also be regarded as "criminals".

GABON

Pascaline Mferri Bongo, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Francophonie, said the changes in South Africa would have a definite impact on the democratization process in Africa and on the continent's development. In Somalia, the time had come for the international community to give priority to the path of dialogue and negotiation. "What is truly at stake for Africa is essentially the economy. It will determine to a great extent the preservation of unity, peace and security on our continent:'the marginalization of Africa in the world economy had only grown during the past five years. Never had the UN been called on to such a degree by the international community as in the past few years. If it was to meet expectations, it must adapt to) the demands of the times, including equitable representation in the Security Council and an expanded membership.

GAMBIA

Foreign Minister Omar B. Sey said Africa paid one third of i total export income to developed countries to service its debt - a situation that could not continue. Africa's indebtedness and lower production output in agriculture and industry were aggravated by serious inflation, which had contributed to a steep decline in savings and investment. The international community's commitment to sustainable development in Africa could be enhanced by encouraging increased direct foreign investment and transfer of financial resources. Gambia condemned the "naked and brutal aggression" by UNITA against the Government and people of Angola. Angola's elections must be respected, and the international community should support action against any force that sought to disregard or overturn the vote. In South Africa, there were clear indications that the peace process was on track and that change was irreversible.

GHANA

Foreign Minister Obed Y. Asamoah said that UN readiness to act decisively in Somalia contrasted sharply with "the timidity and hesitation" that marked its presence in the former Yugoslavia, threatening to erode the Organization's credibility. Whatever mistake the UN Operation in Somalia may have made, it was "grotesque for any Somali leader to seek to be a hero" by engaging the UN in combat. The situation in Sudan cried out for a peaceful solution and for greater UN involvement. The world community had a responsibility to maintain its vigilance regarding South Africa until the elections on 27 April 1994, which would install an acceptable constitutional programme for a transitional Government. The UN peace plan for Western Sahara must be allowed to work, and the timetable for elections must be respected. The source of underdevelopment could be largely traced to a global economic system that had been inimical to the interests of developing and poor countries.

GUINEA

Ibrahima Sylla, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, said the Security Council must decide on a new strategy to overcome obstacles to peace in Somalia. The world economic crisis was aggravating the already precarious conditions for development in Third World countries. So long as the question of indebtedness was not studied in a global, concerted manner, the socioeconomic development programmes of the Third World would be in jeopardy. Lack of resources for development led to a mass exodus from the countries of the South to the countries of the North. The UN should implement new and dynamic strategies with a view to establishing a new world order based on equality, justice, peace, cooperation and respect for democratic values. The progress achieved in disarmament should be pursued in the hope that the resources thus released would contribute to the recovery of the world economy.

GUINEA-BISSAU

Bernardino Cardoso, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, said the economic situation in Africa was becoming more and more worrying. Incomes in sub-Saharan Africa averaged $490 per person per year - the lowest in the world. Africa was the only region where the number of people living in poverty was likely to increase markedly before the year 2000. Its debt burden had continued to grow by about 10 per cent over the last decade. Africa's economy was worsening to such an extent that it "must break with routine thinking and devise new instruments and methods in order to understand and properly respond to the needs of a continent which is economically in anguish". Guinea-Bissau welcomed the European Community's efforts to lay the foundation for closer economic cooperation among the five Portugese-speaking countries of Africa, although they were not geographically contiguous.

KENYA

Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, Minister for Foreign Affairs and international Cooperation, said that a very heavy influx of Somali refugees into Kenya had had a devastating effect on his country's most ecologically fragile parts. The border region had suffered serious environmental destruction as a result of excessive cutting of trees, and physical and social infrastructures had been overstretched by excessive usage and overloading. Meanwhile, numerous acts of banditry by armed gangs entering Kenya resulted in the loss of both civilians and security personnel at an unacceptably high rate. As peace was being restored in Somalia, Kenya was cooperating with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to accelerate the voluntary repatriation of refugees. His country wanted urgent assistance for the rehabilitation of physical and social infrastructures and restoration of the regional ecosystem. The Security Council must be reformed so that it is more transparent, representative democratic in its decision-making process.

LESOTHO

Foreign Minister Molapo M. Qhobela said: "Like a world parliament, the United Nations must reflect in its structures the same democratic values that it advocates, the values of fairness, transparency and equitable representation, in order to validate the principle of equality of States:' In the Security Council, Africa should be allotted at least two permanent seats. Lesotho hoped that the lessons of its peaceful transition to democracy would not be lost on South Africans, whose own chance to elect a government of their choice for the first time seemed within reach. Lesotho condemned UNITA for escalating its military actions. Least developed countries were continuing to experience a deterioration of their socio-economic situation owing to profound structural constraints and handicaps that reduced their ability to overcome the negative impact of external factors.

LIBERIA

Gabriel Baccus Matthews, Foreign Minister of the interior Government of National Unity, said the 25 July 1993 Cotonou Agreement was a significant breakthrough in the quest for durable peace in Liberia. By agreeing on a process beginning with a cease-fire and leading to disarmament, demobilization and then free and fair elections, Liberians had finally decided on how power would be acquired in the country. He appealed for international aid for a reasonable period, for "the awesome tasks of repatriation, resettlement and rehabilitation". It would take time before the advantages of peace were translated into real improvements in the lives of the people. The Liberian experience had demonstrated that peace initiatives conceived and implemented within a subregional context, and supported and assisted by regional and international organizations, stood the best chance of success in conflict resolution.

LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA

Omar Mustafa Al-Muntasser, Secretary of the General People's Committee of the People's Bureau for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation, said Libya's eagerness to eliminate international terrorism was embodied in its call to convene a special General Assembly session to study the problem's causes and dimensions. UN sanctions had caused the Libyan people much misery and had cost them billions of dollars in material losses. There was a severe lack of spare parts for aircraft, which had led to a plane crash with 157 fatalities. Any collective security system subject to the veto power of some countries could not maintain international peace and security The Council should not apply double standards when dealing with those issues. The world was in the grip of unprecedented tensions and conflicts, which necessitated further efforts by the UN and regional organizations not only to resolve them, but also to prevent certain countries from monopolizing the resolution of such conflicts.

MALAWI

Nyemba Mbekeani, Minister of Trade and industry said Malawi had suffered tremendously from the adverse impact of the civil war in Mozambique. It had been hosting a large number of refugees from Mozambique. By 1992, that refugee population had soared to 1.5 million. Malawi wanted "uninterrupted repatriation of their brothers and sisters to their homes in Mozambique in safety and security". The time had come for representation in the Security Council to reflect the changed international political scene and geographical balance. The Council must not only be transparent in its decision-making; it needed to reflect the world today and not what it was 48 years ago. Africa deserved to have a permanent seat. In South Africa, all possible assistance must be intensified to remove all forms of violence, to ensure that the general elections take place in April 1994 and that a no racial, democratic government would be installed.

MALI

Mohamed Alhousseini Toure, Minister for Foreign Affairs, for Malians living abroad and African integration, said that, at the subregional level, which encompassed both western Africa south of the Sahara and the Arab Maghreb, Mali was dealing with "complex and difficult problems": instability borne of local conflicts: a dramatic rise in the number of refugees to more than 1.2 million in 1993; slow economic integration that restricted growth in the subregion; and religious questions that were daily gaining more ground and subjecting political institutions to new trials. Commitments made at the 1990 Paris Conference for least developed countries should be honoured. Steps must also be taken to help land-locked and transit developing countries. A main goal of African countries was to fight drought and desertication and to strengthen South-South cooperation.

MAURITANIA

Mohamed Abderahmane Ould Moine, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, said the gap continued to widen between developing and industrialized countries. Africa was the continent which suffered most from the deteriorating international economic situation. How could countries that had barely enough resources to meet their own daily needs cope with tremendous debt obligations? Despite all the conventions, strategies and agreements aimed at promoting development, progress had remained static and in many countries had deteriorated. if industrialized countries had honoured commitments, tangible progress could have been achieved. In the struggle for African development, the more the sources of external aid dried up, the greater the need would be for self-reliance and mobilization by every country of its own resources.

MAURITIUS

Foreign Minister Ahmud Swalay Kasenally said that serious consideration should be given to a review of Charter provisions with an eye to looking anew at its contents and propose amendments in the light of new world realities. The UN system remained "ill-equipped for the scope of its current operations and activities". The General Assembly ought to be encouraged, by its increased membership and a general trend towards democratization, to assume a more preponderant place in the affairs of the Organization. The Security Council's mandate was "expanding beyond the traditional delineation of threats to peace and security into such areas as human rights violations and humanitarian assistance, through preventive diplomacy and innovative peace-keeping operations". A more representative, expanded Council would earn recognition and legitimate acceptance and be able to take action quickly and effectively "with the imprimatur of fairness".

MOROCCO

Abdellatif Filali, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, said consent in principle had been given to the compromise the Secretary-General had proposed regarding criteria for voter eligibility in Western Sahara. The Arab Maghreb Union Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia) was determined to overcome difficulties and go forward to build an effective structure of cooperation and solidarity in the area. A real solution in the middle East was possible only if the momentum for peace was allowed to run its full course and reach its goal with the consent of all peoples of the region. A settlement should restore to Palestinians their rights, including their right to an independent State on their soil with Jerusalem as its capital. The world needed a new code of conduct for international relations to bring the "principles of justice and partnership to the management of world affairs".

MOZAMBIQUE

President Joaquin Alberto Chissano said that after the international community had caught up with initial delays in setting up the United Nations Operation in Mozambique, RENAMO had found new pretexts to further delay implementation of the General Peace Agreement. In its "dilatory manoeuvres", RENAMO was "moving from precondition to precondition". though many of the preconditions had nothing to do with the Agreement or blatantly breached it. The Government could not excuse itself from organizing and holding multiparty elections no later than October 1994. Mozambique was deeply concerned over the resumption of hostilities in Angola, not only because they represented a serious threat to peace, but also because they threatened to perpetuate instability in southern Africa. He wanted compliance with the Bicesse Accords, respect for election results, and the unconditional implementation of relevant Security Council resolutions to obtain a lasting peace in Angola.

NAMIBIA

Foreign Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab said the transfer and reintegration of Walvis Bay and the offshore islands to Namibia would take place on 28 February 1994, marking the completion of Namibia's decolonization and unification. Namibia applauded south Africa's elections in April 1994 and urged all parties to participate in the work of the Transitional Executive Council. It also called on South Africa to end the everescalating violence. In Angola, negotiations should lead to an early cease-fire, allowing delivery of humanitarian assistance. Elections must be conducted in Mozambique in an atmosphere of peace, trust and cooperation. Changes towards a more representative Security Council would enhance its credibility, legitimacy and authority. Africa needed an effective presence on the Council as did Asia and Latin America. "The outmoded and undemocratic veto power should be abolished altogether."

NIGER

President Mahamane Ousmane said for years Africa had suffered from recession, a decline in living standards and a widespread breakdown in the social fabric. Many benefits gained in the early years of independence had been "irretrievably lost". Real per capita income had shrunk below the 1980 level. The relationship between investment and gross national product continued to deteriorate. In some regions of Africa, standards of living, already among the world's harshest, had reached levels that were "unacceptable for a modern civilization". Yet the Governments of those countries had courageously undertaken harsh reforms and adopted painful austerity measures for their people to improve their economic environment. Those adjustment policies had not produced the expected results due to inadequate financial and material means and the burden of foreign debt. Niger called upon developed countries to agree to "a blanket cancellation" of the debt of the least developed countries.

NIGERIA

Ernest Shonekan, Head of State and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, said a democratic Government was within sight in South Africa, although the road had not been smooth. Democratic enterprise in Africa faced many problems, including economic underdevelopment and a high level of illiteracy. Nevertheless, Africa had decided to "face up to the challenge of putting in place an enduring system of democratic governance". Several countries, including Nigeria, catered for the needs of lions of refugees. Nigeria urged the countries of origin of these people to create an environment conducive to their return. "When it is borne in mind that debt-servicing obligations are estimated at about 30 per cent of the value of our exports, the crippling effect on our economies becomes apparent." The African economic crisis, a major source of social and political turmoil in the region, seriously threatened long-term prospects for the global economy. The persistence of the crisis was not due to inaction on the part of African Governments.

RWANDA

President Juvenal Habyarimana said Rwanda was emerging from "a pointless and undeserved war" imposed on it three years ago, thanks to the 4 August 1993 Arusha Peace Agreement. The time had come for the long-term, enormous work of national reconstruction, reconciliation and democratization. Rwanda welcomed the establishment of a multiparty system by the constitutional review of 10 June 1991, by which 17 political parties were agreed upon. Five were forming a transitional Government that soon would be expanded to the Rwanda Patriotic Front for a new transitional period, leading to pluralist, free and democratic elections. Priorities were post-war economic development, including emergency assistance to those displaced by the war; reintegration of Rwandese refugees; reconstruction; and social and economic reintegration of demobilized military personnel. He was grateful to the UN for establishing the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda.

SENEGAL

Moustapha Niasse, Minister of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs and for Senegalese living abroad, said that by calling into question the validity of Angolan elections, UNITA once again had plunged the country into an atmosphere fraught with danger and uncertainty. The magnitude of destruction and suffering caused by that situation warranted urgent efforts to arrive at a definitive ceasefire and a resumption of negotiations. A great deal still needed to be done to restore peace and organize a viable State in Somalia. The infrastucture had been devastated, the state had collapsed, and fratricidal internal strife had engendered massive displacements of the population. The UN was on the right path there, conducting the most ambitious and largest operation ever organized in Africa. Senegal was pleased at that operation's organization in a country that was experiencing "a tragic and complex situation". The proposal for an Agenda for Development" to accompany the " Agenda for Peace" deserved international consideration.

SEYCHELLES

Danielle de St. Joree, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Planning and Environment, said that the small size of island States like Seychelles was the "source of innumerable constraints on economic and social development", such as chronic deficits in trade balances, the high cost of social infrastructures in relation to their utilization and, especially, excessive indebtedness. The convergence of those factors exacerbated the fragility of small island economies, which were based on one or two sectors such as tourism and fishing. Countries such as Seychelles needed specific programmes and mechanisms to make it possible to move towards sustainable development. The Indian ocean should truly become a zone of peace and cooperation to the benefit of coastal States.

SIERRA LEONE

Karefa Kargbo, Acting Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, said that two years after the adoption of the New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s, the experience for many countries, especially the least developed ones, had been one of disappointment and frustration. Even though most African countries had carried out structural adjustment programmes and put in place democratic structures, the development partnership promised by the New Agenda had not been forthcoming. The trauma that many African societies were experiencing daily in the fight against poverty, malnutrition and disease must not be allowed to become a way of life. "We in Africa would dearly love to be able to lift ourselves by our own bootstraps but we cannot do so when our bootstraps are firmly in the hands of others:' Unless the international community applied creative and effective comprehensive measures, such as debt-for-development swaps and other debt-relief measures, the solution to Africa's economic crisis would continue to be illusory.

SUDAN

Foreign Minister Husein Suliman Abu Salih said his country rejected policies that "reflect a double standard in dealing with human rights, because the Sudan has been victimized by such policies". Sudan hoped that universality of human ri not be misconstrued to justify denial of cultural, religious and indigenous specifics of various States and peoples, "Those who pose as defenders of human rights in the Sudan ignore the terrorist p of the outlaws in southern Sudan " Sudan denounced terrorism in all its forms, "Real terrorism is when a single super-power utilizes its might to terrorize small developing countries for no reason except that they opted for a path of independent decision-making and rejected blind proselytism." His country had suffered tremendously from "attempts to tarnish its image" by making its relief delivery efforts look like failures and obstructions to the inflow of supplies. Sudan's priority was to attain a just and lasting peace in southern Sudan and end the war that exposed innocent civilians the "scourges of death, famine, disease and displacement".

SWAZILAND

King Mswati III said Swaziland and the other countries in Africa's southern and eastern regions had formed their own regional common markets. The Southern African Development Community and the Preferential Trade Area for eastern and southern African States were models of inter-nation cooperation. Through these organizations, "we are trying to open up more regional markets to complement those we have established overseas Our long-term target is to achieve a measure of regional self-reliance:" Swaziland would formally begin soon the process of returning the tens of thousands of Mozambican refugees to their homeland, after hosting them for many years. South Africa also gave some reason for long-term hope of a peaceful transition to majority rule. Swaziland appealed to leaders of all parties to impose maximum restraint on those who threatened the real progress that had been made.

TOGO

Ouattara Fambare Natchaba, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, said Africans - already the victims of undernourishment, famine and all kinds of other ills - were bearing the full brunt of failing export prices, deteriorating terms of trade, and the debt burden. Africa had been struggling for more than a decade "under an economic shock therapy" that left no chance of success. The international community should: write off debt or reduce it substantially; make repayment conditions more flexible and set up a diversification fund to transform the commodities sector and stimulate economic growth. As the 1980s were "a lost decade" for Africa, during the 1990s industrialized countries should agree to an increase in financial flows to poorer countries. It was a shame to see aid levels failing just when African countries were making major efforts to promote democracy and manage their economies in a sound and rigorous manner.

TUNISIA

Foreign Minister Habib Ben Yahia said the dispute between Libya and three western countries was a source of deep concern for Tunisia, which had worked hard to find an honourable settlement that would safeguard the interests of all parties. An end to decades of confrontation, destruction and suffering was in view in the Middle East. The historic mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO and the declaration of principles relating to the occupied territories were all important signposts along the road towards recognizing the legitimate rights of Palestinians and promoting comprehensive peace in the Middle East. Tunisia hoped that Israel would reach an agreement with the Arab parties in order to achieve a just and lasting peace, guaranteeing that all peoples of the region would live in security and stability Tunisia also hoped that all problems in the Gulf region would be "properly and rationally" resolved. The debt of developing countries should be rescheduled "by creating a special fund to finance job-creating development projects".

UGANDA

Paul K. Ssemogerere, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, said that further measures on debt relief, including debt cancellation, were needed. "Regrettably, for Africa the critical economic situation and the trend of marginalization continue." Reversing that trend was crucial for Africa's survival in the geopolitical and economic system of the twenty-first century. Forging regional integration was an imperative if Africa was to end its underdevelopment and become a part of the global economy. African integration would create economies of scale, which were essential for the diversification of its economies. He welcomed the Abuja Treaty creating an African Economic Community. Countries of the eastern and southern Africa preferential trade area had resolved to establish a subregional common market. Resources once devoted to building armaments should be used for development both within and between nations. Unfortunately, at the international level, the peace dividend was not being "channelled towards assistance to developing countries".

UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA

Joseph C. Rwegasira, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said that the number of permanent and non-permanent seats on the Security Council should be expanded, taking into account the need to ensure equity in geographical representation. Unless the Council treated all challenges to its authority equally, it ran the risk of losing the international community's support and trust, which was crucial if its actions were to be accepted as legitimate. "In addition, the old problem of the outdated veto is still with us and failure to do something about it will not make it go away." There was a growing conviction that the Council had been stretching its interpretation of the Charter to include things not foreseen in Chapter VII, such as humanitarian emergencies, human rights, ecological threats, drug trafficking and the like. While the Council must be enabled to respond to new situations, there was a real danger that it would allow itself to be guided not by the Charter but by the dictates of a few Member States.

ZAIRE

Foreign Minister Mpinga Kasenda appealed to the international community and, in particular, to those countries that wrongly believed they had received a mandate to administer Zaire, to let the Zairians settle their own problems. "We therefore urge our usual partners to help us overcome this crisis instead of dividing us by canonizing some and rendering others anathema." Africa had not been "spared by the situation of semi-war, semi-peace in which young States must manage bloody conflicts which sorely try their fragile State structures and their precarious socio-economic infrastructures". Zaire, which neither made nor sold arms, deplored the attitude of those countries whose citizens manufactured arms and sold them to belligerents in Angola and then came and "shed crocodile tears in international forums over the fate of the victims of this fratricidal war". Zaire hoped that there would be genuine reconciliation within the black community in South Africa so that a fratricidal war did not break out.

ZIMBABWE

President Robert G. Mugabe said the recent proliferation of situations of conflict, instability and tension around the globe called for greater participation and involvement of the UN's general membership in the Security Council's workings. There was, therefore, a need to adjust its membership, structure and methods of work to reflect the changes in international relations since 194 5. Because of the dramatic increase in UN membership, the Council had become less representative and needed to be enlarged. Zimbabwe was concerned about the "apparent impression often created by the Council" that majority votes constitute international law, regardless of the provisions of the Charter and other relevant international statutes". Official development assistance flows, on which developing countries depended, had declined in recent years, while direct investment had constituted only a marginal percentage of all inflows to those countries, particularly in Africa. The majority of African countries had made "great sacrifices and encountered untold difficulties" in implementing economic reform measures.

AFGHANISTAN

Foreign Minister Hedayat Amin Arsala said to ensure that the entire Afghan nation participated in determining its future political structure, his country planned to hold elections in 1994. The UN had been asked to help organize and supervise the election process. Afghanistan welcomed the Tajik authorities' decision to solve their internal political problems through negotiations so that Tajik refugees in Afghanistan could return to Tajikistan voluntarily with confidence, in security and with honour, in accordance with international norms. To that end, Afghanistan was planning to reach a trilateral agreement among itself, Tajikistan and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The situations in Kashmir and Bosnia and Herzegovina were tragic. "Untold atrocities committed against the innocent Bosnian Muslim population" were an affront to the UN and an insult to humanity. Afghanistan needed urgent support to intensify its struggle against the cultivation and trafficking of drugs.

BAHRAIN

Foreign Minister Shaikh Mohamed Bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa said: "The world now stands at the crossroads of history, where it faces difficult challenges. This is especially so because certain evil tendencies have caused the eruption of

volcanoes of malevolent hatreds and racism, which have destroyed many hopes and shattered the expectations of millions of people to achieve security and prosperity for future generations." This was a time of profound change in States in which people's aspirations for stability and development merged with fears generated by the gap between a developed, affluent world and a world unable to meet the minimum requirements of decent living. He proposed that the post-cold-war world should be built on new concepts concerning issues of world peace and development "that would rid the world of the residues and perceptions of the ideological and strategic thinking that prevailed throughout the cold-war period".

BANGLADESH

Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia said a "yawning gap" existed between the economies and cultures of developed and developing countries. But "poverty is not the same as bankruptcy: the South, where Bangladesh belongs, has a glorious past, when there was economic and cultural prosperity. We are now engaged in the task of building a new future based on our culture, tradition and availability of resources." Bangladesh's jute products were more acceptable, in environmental terms, than various chemical and synthetic products. However, in the face of massive expansion of the use of synthetic fibres that polluted the environment, Bangladesh's jute industry was threatened with extinction. in the field of external trade, developing countries were being subjected to all sorts of discrimination by developed countries. That must give way to strong and realistic North-South trade links based on equality.

BHUTAN

Foreign Minister Lyompo Dawa Tsering said UN long-term success would "depend on how democratic it becomes in its functioning and to what extent it will involve all its Members, large and small, in the decision-making process". Bhutan hoped the Organization would "become the centrepiece of a more just and equitable world order and will speak for the whole of humanity rather than just for a privileged few". The recession that had afflicted much of the world economy in the past year had not shown any signs of improvement. While the least developed countries had initiated some bold and painful economic reforms, budget constraints on donors and competing claims on aid resources had slowed development assistance. Bhutan urged all nuclear States not to carry out further tests and to negotiate towards a comprehensive test ban. "No country which supplies arms can dissociate itself from the moral responsibility for the use of such arms."

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

Foreign Minister Prince Mohamed Bolkiah said the success of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) showed what could be done through responsible regional efforts and patient multilateral action. He hoped that "our regional and subregional associations" would play a crucial supporting role for UN operations. The more that was done, the more the UN would be able to act in a way in which it was most effective - "as the authority of last resort". Brunei said that current developments in the Middle East should start a process to restore all legitimate Palestinian rights. Brunei Darussalam strongly supported Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Charter would be "severely compromised" if the UN became "a party to any arrangement which forces a sovereign nation and fellow Member of the United Nations to submit to aggression". That would both condone and reward terrorism.

CAMBODIA

Sdech Krom Luong Norodom Ranariddh, First Prime Minister of the Royal Government, said the success of the UN Transition Authority in Cambodia could be described as a combination of trust in the international community's good will to save the country and of the will of Cambodians to save their homeland. By their huge participation in last May's free and fair elections, Cambodians played a decisive role in sowing the seeds of democracy in the country. The establishment of the Royal Government of Cambodia would ensure the social stability and peace necessary to enable its people to dedicate themselves to Cambodia's reconstruction and development. Cambodia would welcome the Khmer Rouge as advisers to the Royal Army and the Royal Government. In return, the Khmer Rouge must assume the same responsibilities undertaken by the other three former parties to the Paris Agreements, Cambodia, a devastated country, needed international aid.

CHINA

Qian Qichen, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, opposed the "all too frequent arbitrary use of sanctions by one country to bring pressure to bear on another under the pretext of controlling arms transfers, while engaging in massive arms sales of one's own which jeopardize the sovereignty and security of the country concerned". It disapproved of the "indiscriminate" use of sanctions or force in the name of the UN. Humanitarian missions must not be transformed into military operations. If complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons could not be achieved soon enough, then the nuclear Powers should agree not to be the first to use nuclear weapons and not to use them against non-nuclear weapon States or nuclear-free zones. Reform of the Security Council and other UN organs should take due account of the principle of equitable geographical distribution and should accommodate the interests of developing countries.

CYPRUS

President Glafcos Clerides said a large component of his country's problem in its present dimensions was the "massive violation" of the human rights of displaced persons evicted by force from their homes by the "Turkish forces of occupation". The Turkish side's intransigence had rendered every effort to find a solution impossible. If a viable and lasting solution of the problem was to be found, and a federally united state established "without occupation troops and settlers", concerted action was required by the international community as a whole. Cyprus was a test-case with regard to the UN's effectiveness in peacemaking. "We remain committed to reaching a peaceful solution." Gaps in international law and practice - failure to uphold human rights or upholding them in one situation and "closing our eyes" to their violation in others - must no longer be acceptable behaviour, "particularly in the new world order to which we all aspire".

DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC

OF KOREA

Deputy Foreign Minister Song Won Ho said his country had neither nuclear weapons, the intention or need to develop those weapons, nor the financial resources to support their production. It would not object to inspection of its nuclear facilities, "but only when impartiality is fully guaranteed". All UN members should encourage a negotiated resolution of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula. Nuclear weapons deployed on the peninsula and its surrounding regions should be dismantled. The Korean Armistice Agreement should be replaced with a peace agreement. His country was "not at anyone's beck and call", nor did it "dance to anyone else's tune". In the world there were big and small countries but there could not be senior or junior countries. All nations should have unrestricted freedom to choose and develop their own political, economic and social system on the basis of their sovereign rights.

FIJI

Ratu Manasa K. Seniloli, Permanent Representative to the UN, said that as global warming and sea level rise could seriously threaten some small island States, Fiji reaffirmed support for the Framework Convention on Climate Change. His country was encouraged that 162 countries had signed the Convention and 26 had ratified it. Fiji hoped that the required number of ratifications - 50 - would soon be achieved so that the Convention could enter into force. Developing countries lost about $100 billion a year in export revenues as a result of market barriers in industrialized countries - double the official development assistance they provided. It was ironic that taxpayers in industrialized countries paid both for aid and imports that were more costly as a result of trade barriers, while the poorest developing countries lost more in trade than they gained in aid. Further progress in trade liberalization through the Uruguay Round was urgent. As for New Caledonia's self-determination, Fiji hoped that the Matignon and Oudinot accords would be respected so that indigenous Kanaks could take part in the 1998 referendum.

INDIA

Foreign Minister Dinesh Singh said India was ready to initiate a dialogue with Pakistan to build mutual confidence and promote a climate of stability in the region. Pakistan should have such a dialogue, "instead of trying to go around the world accentuating differences that will be difficult to resolve later". The UN would have to take strong action against terrorists who "try to upset democratically-taken decisions in a country by using force and killing people". Any unilateral use of human rights as an instrument of political pressure or intervention, as an obstacle to trade or a condition for development aid, served the opposite purpose, impeding full realization of human rights. A more balanced and expanded Security Council was inevitable. Population, the size of the economy and the future potential of countries concerned should be taken into account, along with equitable geographical distribution and contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security.

INDONESIA

Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said peace and security could not be sustained unless the very concept of security itself was expanded "to embrace such non-military threats as structural underdevelopment and mass poverty, acute resource scarcity and severe environmental degradation, which together with prolonged natural disasters conjure up the looming spectre of massive and uncontrollable cross-border migrations". The debt crisis of developing countries was a manifestation of the shortcomings of the international system in providing access to adequate long-term resources on satisfactory terms. The gap was filled by private banks, lending on "inappropriate terms". Debt-servicing became an "oppressive burden" on borrower countries when export earnings declined following the collapse of commodity prices and growing restrictions on market access to developed countries.

IRAN

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati said the recent Israel-PLO accord was not a realistic solution to the root causes of conflict. Israel's attempts to "fan the flames of discord, distrust and division among States in the region" could not legitimize the "unrealistic, short-sighted and imposed plans as solutions or mechanisms to return peace and stability to the region". In the Security Council, "there should be no room for undemocratic practices, hidden agendas, a lack of transparency or indifference to the views of the international community, as reflected in the General Assembly". The Council acted on "behalf" of the UN's entire membership and was accountable to that membership. Its powers did not emanate from "any inherent right". In today's international climate, the primacy of political interests of the public had generated grave concerns about the Council's ability to take "prompt and effective action". The Assembly must therefore fully and deliberately exercise its prerogatives in that regard as the highest organ of the UN.

IRAQ

Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf said the UN should not permit itself to become "a tool for serving the selfish interests of certain dominant Powers", first among which was the United States. The "most telling example" of United States hegemony over the UN was what was being done to Iraq even though it had declared its commitment to Security Council resolutions, "which it fully implements". The "war of destruction launched against Iraq by the United States and its allies, the continued imposition of the comprehensive blockade and the denial of Iraq's right to export its oil and use its frozen assets in foreign banks have all combined to make Iraq unable to provide even the most elementary of its people's basic humanitarian needs, such as food and medication". The United States continued to "perpetuate direct and unilateral acts of military aggression against Iraq under various false pretexts and flimsy justifications". The Council had done "absolutely nothing" about Israel's military aggression against an Iraqi peaceful-use nuclear reactor.

ISRAEL

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the recent peace agreement was "an ongoing, profound commitment to the next generation of Arabs and Israelis, Christians, Muslims, Jews and people of all other faiths". Israel was determined to make that agreement into a permanent success. A newly achieved security would serve the aspirations of Israelis and the necessities of Palestinians. To construct a modern Middle East, "we have to rid ourselves of the costly follies of the past and adopt the principles of modern economy". He said: "Let peace be comprehensive, embracing all issues, all countries, all generations. We suggest that we all negotiate together as equals. We offer a common ground of mutual respect and mutual compromise.... We did not give up territorial control to engage ourselves in economic superiority. The age of domination, political or economic, is dead." Differences "should not prevent us from ... combating the desert and offering fertility to an arid land".

JAPAN

Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa said the development of the global economy based on principles of market economy should be promoted. Japan and other industrialized nations must support developing countries and former socialist countries in their political and economic reforms. Assistance to countries in transition must not come at the expense of aid to developing countries. As the world's top donor, Japan intended to provide up to $75 billion in official development assistance over a five-year period. Views expressed by many Member States indicated the need to expand the Security Council's membership, while ensuring its effectiveness. Japan supported the NPT's indefinite extension beyond 1995, but that should not mean the perpetuation of the possession of nuclear weapons by nuclear-weapon States. Japan strongly encouraged North Korea to fully implement the safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

JORDAN

Crown Prince El-Hassan Bin Talal said the Palestinian-Israeli declaration of principles was a significant step towards achieving a negotiated settlement in the troubled Middle East. On the Jordanian-Israeli track, a carefully worked-out common agenda had been adopted. Jordan had supported Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) longer than any other party. There was considerable alarm in the Muslim world at suggestions that Islam might replace communism as a global threat. Islam was not "a monolithic creed of violence, intolerance and oppression". Extremism existed in the Muslim world, as it did in Christian, Jewish, Hindu and secular worlds. "But to employ reductive stereotypes which demonize one fifth of the world's population must ultimately be self-defeating." Continued sanctions had a special impact on the most vulnerable segments of Iraqi society and neighbouring States, including Jordan and Turkey.

KAZAKHSTAN

Foreign Minister Touleutai S. Suleimenov said that only by taking preventive measures based on global and regional cooperation between nations could peace be ensured and maintained. That was at the heart of creating a system of collective security in Asia within the framework of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia, an initiative formulated in 1992 by Kazakhstan. It called on all UN members to convene a special General Assembly session devoted to strengthening international peace and security, preventive diplomacy, human rights, and enhancing the UN role in an interdependent and integrated world. It also supported Uzbekistan's proposal to set up a special UN forum on the Aral Sea. Kazakhstan needed $2 billion to cover the dismantling of nuclear weapons, to eliminate the consequences of nuclear tests and to solve the Aral Sea crisis.

KUWAIT

Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, said the Iraqi regime "remains in its philosophy, behaviour, thinking and nature" a threat to regional and global peace and security, persisting in its aggressiveness, while it "thumbs its nose" at the world community. Iraq's "desperate endeavours" to have sanctions lifted would be "totally futile" unless it complied with new boundary demarcations. It must also desist from "the false claims to so-called historical rights". Iraq's procrastination in implementing Security Council resolutions extended to the release of all prisoners. Iraq also failed to return some Kuwaiti property and still oppressed its own population in northern and southern Iraq. Responsibility for the plight of Iraqis "lies squarely on the regime itself, which must be held accountable for all the dire consequences of its atrocities".

KYRGYZSTAN

Foreign Minister Ednan O. Karabayev said Kyrgyzstan was one of the few former Soviet republics to have adopted economic reforms for transition to a market economy. Thousands of young people were coming into the cities from the villages without any real professional training or any chance of prospering. Kyrgystan - which could not yet give its economy the necessary impetus to enable it to solve major social problems - needed investment. "Like other relatively small countries, we need a kind of Marshall Plan. The experience of many States has shown that this would be profitable for the wealthy countries and donors in many ways." As for recent "tragic conflicts with religious roots", one possible solution was a universal convention on freedom of religion, calling for people of different faiths "to apply ethical and moral principles for the sake of peace and harmony".

LAO PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavad said that Laotian participation as an observer in the Singapore ministerial meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) had given new impetus to joint efforts to promote cooperation in different fields. In Cambodia, the promulgation of a new Constitution and Government would open the way to peace, stability and national and regional harmony. The sensitive question of promoting human rights required serious consideration on the basis of the principles of non-selectivity, objectivity and impartiality. The historic, cultural, social, economic and religious realities of each country should also be taken into account. With the end of bipolarization, it was important that States place their hopes in the UN, which was "truly intended to be universal and institutional, capable of maintaining international peace and security, of promoting development and of having justice and law prevail the world over".

LEBANON

Prime Minister Rafic Hariri said there could be no firm and lasting peace in the Middle East without Lebanon and Syria. The Israeli-Palestinian accord "will remain a mere single step unless it is quickly complemented by substantive solutions on the other Arab tracks". He said: "If we really wish to put an end once and for all to the chapters of pain and anguish in the Middle East, then the cause of the Palestinians should be addressed" so they could live a decent life. Lebanon expected the UN to work forcefully for the implementation of Security Council resolution 425 (1978), and to ensure Israel's total withdrawal from Lebanon. Peace in Lebanon had been, and continued to be, the sine qua non for stability in the Middle East and for the establishment of a just and comprehensive peace in the entire region. Any peace arrangements would remain fragile should the international community choose to tolerate the continuation of a situation that threatened Lebanon with "potentially explosive disputes".

MALAYSIA

Prime Minister Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said the "most undemocratic aspect" of the UN was the veto power given to the five permanent Security Council members. "We can accept some weighting in their favour, but for each of them alone to be more powerful than the whole membership of the United Nations is not acceptable; it was not before, it is not now, and will not be in the future." A formula must be found to bring in new permanent Council members. Malaysia subscribed to the universality of human rights, but not to the "irresponsible variety propounded by the West". Human rights was not a "licence to do anything without regard to the rights of others". The rights of the majority were just as valid as the rights of the minority or the individual. "A society has a right to protect itself from the unbridled exercise of rights by individuals or a minority, which in the West has contributed to the collapse of morality and of the structure of human society."

MALDIVES

Foreign Minister Fathulla Jameel said the North-South dialogue must be reactivated on a new basis comprising common interests and benefits and shared responsibilities. South-South cooperation must allow States to pool their resources and pursue concrete development efforts within the framework of collective self-reliance and continued support for open trading systems. Sustainable development was the only way to guarantee continued life on Earth. All States should urgently ratify the climate and bio-diversity Conventions. The international community should not let the promotion of human rights be used by a few as an excuse for imposing uniformity in human behaviour and thinking, at the expense of diversity. Rather, it should emphasize the significance of the universality of human rights. "We know only too well the fate of societies that try to impose uniform thinking and behaviour on their peoples. Differences between individuals and societies should be valued. Such diversity enriches our family of nations."

MARSHALL ISLANDS

Foreign Minister Tom Kijiner said the way of life of the Marshall Islanders was imminently threatened by a rise in sea level. The Marshall Islands might cease to exist. Everyone in the Assembly Hall should "visit our corner of the world before it disappears". The world would be "greatly diminished by the loss of even one of the diverse cultures that have been crafted by mankind". For a low-lying atoll like the Marshall Islands, the Climate Change Convention might have come too late. The global conference on small island States would "increase worldwide understanding of the vulnerability of our Islands". The will of the international community to live up to promises made at Rio would face its first test then. The Pacific islands were especially vulnerable to dangers posed by transport of nuclear material. Such shipments should cease. If they continued, States responsible must take every precaution to ensure the safety of States along the sea lanes.

FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA

Resio S. Moses, Secretary for External Affairs, expressed solidarity with all indigenous peoples of the world. The peoples of the remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories should be able to exercise their right to self-determination. Members of the South Pacific Forum opposed nuclear weapons testing. Micronesia called on all nuclear Powers not to treat the recent testing by one of those Powers - an aberration - as "an incentive to turn backwards, but rather to restore and hold to their collective discipline". Micronesia also called on the world community to join in a true partnership for sustainable development. One important focus must be the land and coastal areas "within our region", to accommodate appropriate development without degrading either the land or its surrounding marine space. Another broader focus must be the ocean itself - to respect and build upon growing scientific knowledge of its complex ecological system.

MONGOLIA

Tserenpiliin Gombosuren, Minister for External Relations, said Mongolia, which last year had declared its territory a nuclear-weapon-free zone, welcomed the idea of turning Central Asia into such a zone. No tangible progress had been registered in addressing the issues of poverty, external debt, drugs, organized crime, the widening gap between the affluent and the poor, and environmental crises. It was time to address resolutely the long-standing agenda relating to economic disparities between the North and the South, including eradication of poverty, debt relief, elimination of trade protectionism and an early and successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round. Though the cold war was over, "hot wars" had multiplied. On the one hand, the spirit of cooperation and interaction was prevalent. New democracies were making headway in the face of the formidable difficulties of transition. on the other, old, deep-seated problems still awaited solutions, and new ones, once held in check by the circumstances of the time, were emerging.

MYANMAR

Foreign Minister U Ohn Gyaw said that in spite of positive political and economic changes in Myanmar, "some continue to point an accusing finger at us" in regard to human rights. The diversity of its people's historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must neither be minimized nor forgotten. No unique model of human rights implementation could be "superimposed on a given country. Any attempt to do so would only spell chaos." If human rights was used as a pretext for intervening in domestic affairs of States, that would only undermine the rights that needed protection. The return of "our prodigal sons" from 10 different national races gave the lie to allegations that minority groups in Myanmar were being oppressed. Myanmar would continue to receive those who were eligible to come, as soon as their cases could be processed. Myanmar gave priority to the narrowing of the gap between rich and poor, city dwellers and rural folk.

NEPAL

Girija Prasad Koirala, Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, said: "The United Nations is an organization of the powerful and the weak, the large and the small, the wealthy and the poor, each contributing its share to the common interest. It is in the interest of all to make the United Nations an effective and influential agent of constructive change in a turbulent world." In the maintenance of peace and security, implementation of enforcement measures under the UN Charter should be the step of last resort, "the exception to rather than the rule of the game". The "post-cold-war world is very much in need of order, but it is a world that cannot be ordered by military and economic Powers alone. At this time of historic transition, political leadership in all countries must show a higher order of statesmanship. It is time to shed old prejudices and parochialism. We should be able to pool the best of every civilization and culture for the greater good of mankind."

OMAN

Yousef Bin-Alawi Bin Abdullah, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said regional cooperation in the area of economic and social development would be an indispensable prerequisite of any new order in the Middle East. European countries bore the responsibility of addressing the humanitarian, political, security and economic aspects of the problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The principles of human rights, justice and equality had always been the "lofty ideals that civilized Europe" had preached and called upon the world to adhere to. Paradoxically the world had yet to see those lofty principles "translated into measures that would rescue the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina from their agony and from injustice and persecution". Oman hoped that developed countries would realize the importance of allowing developing countries to revitalize their economies so that the economic order might regain the balance between the supply side, upon which industrial economies depended, and the demand side, on which the economic growth of third world countries was based,

PAKISTAN

Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said recent reports testified to alarming escalation in human rights abuses" by Indian force Kashmir, where the crisis called for urgent UN action. India had "unleashed a brutal reign of terror" in an "unconscionable attempt to bludgeon the Kashmiri people into submission and to thwart their legitimate struggle. That right to decide their own future had been specifically pledged to them by Pakistan, India and the UN, and was sanctified in Security Council resolutions, A fact-finding mission should be dispatched to Jammu and Kashmir. in Bosnia and Herzegavina, some Council members had obstructed moves to assist victims, knowing full well that the perpetrators of the aggression were being aided and abetted by their ethnic neighbours". In Afghanistan, the accommodation achieved by mujahidin leaders and the formation of a coalition government were reasons for satisfaction.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Foreign Minister John Kaputin said his country was committed to New Caledonia's decolonization, with special safeguards for its indigenous people, the Kanaks. His Government strongly opposed any suggestion that the Matignon Accords might not be fully honoured, as did the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the South Pacific Forum. In French Polynesia, Polynesian demands for independence seemed to be gaining strength. Like most other UN members, Papua New Guinea was concerned at the possibility that reform of the international trading system might fail as a result of the "apparent intransigence of vested interests in certain developed countries during the final stages of the Uruguay Round of negotiations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade". Regional trading blocs were not an adequate substitute for an orderly international trading system.

PHILIPPINES

Robert R. Romulo, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, said: "Economic barriers continue to be propped up by atavistic hands that seek to reverse the tide and hold back the march of global economic progress. The most obvious victim of these rearguard actions is the Uruguay Round, which ... has yet to come to a conclusion. The ultimate victims are the global economy and the livelihoods and standards of living of the world's peoples. Here, the accusing finger of history points at certain developed countries, with their short-sighted subsidies and protectionist devices." Legitimate concerns over health, food safety, the environment, worker's welfare, and even human rights, including the rights of indigenous peoples - and now "social dumping" - were being invoked "to clothe in various guises policies of naked protectionism". Decisions on global finance continued to be made by a few, with the rest of the world standing by. Foreign debt was a "millstone round the necks of many developing countries".

QATAR

Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al-Thani said Qatar welcomed the Israel-PLO agreement as a first step towards a just, complete and lasting solution to the Palestinian question. Qatar hoped the ongoing negotiations would make fundamental and parallel progress on all tracks. Short of that, no real peace could be achieved in the region. It supported all initiatives aimed at making the Middle East a region free from all nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction and their systems of delivery. Qatar viewed human rights as a high moral value that should not be used as a means of or a pretext for interference in the internal affairs of other States, and an issue that should not be addressed by varying standards that differed from the case of one State to the other. Each society had its own customs, tradition, culture and principles in line with its creed and outlook, and consideration should be given to the historical and cultural frameworks of the Arab and Islamic world, as well as to those of other cultures.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Foreign Minister Han Sung-Joo said the solution to the inter-Korean question should be sought in the context of the post-cold-war international order of reconciliation and cooperation. That meant active participation by both North and South Koreas in the regional and global order. The Republic of Korea was particularly concerned with the nuclear programme of North Korea, which should cooperate in removing any suspicions by honouring its non-proliferation obligations under the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). It should also implement the 1991 inter-Korean Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The Republic of Korea was also deeply concerned about the safety of North Korean nuclear power reactors. The Security Council should be enlarged without sacrificing its effectiveness. The creation of a third category, with long-term membership but no veto, coupled with the expansion of the non-permanent membership, might be an answer.

SAMOA

Tofilau Eti Alesana, Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, said environmental security was crucial to Samoa and other countries of the South Pacific. "In my part of the world, island communities now live under the constant threat of ecological disasters:'the global and adverse effects of induced climate change "prey on the natural vulnerabilities of many lands and their peoples, and severely undermine the national livelihood and economic development efforts of many governments". Small island States like Samoa and low-lying atolls faced a host of constraints. Isolated and ecologically fragile, they were the most vulnerable to external economic, trade and climatic factors. Without international cooperation and without an integrated approach, the outlook was not promising. The South Pacific region could not continue to be a testing ground for nuclear devices or a dumping ground for chemical wastes. South Pacific Forum countries continued to urge nuclear-power States to heed their concern and accede to the Protocols of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty - the paramount symbol of the region's commitment to a nuclear-free environment.

SAUDI ARABIA

Gaafar M. Allagany, Acting Permanent Representative to the UN, said the international community must work diligently to exploit the momentum generated by the Israel-PLO agreement in furthering the cause of peace. Consolidating that step required tangible and positive results in negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, especially regarding the issue of Al-Quds, the return of Palestinian refugees, and Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories. Peace on the Syrian-Israeli front would be achieved only by a complete israeli withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights. Israel should also withdraw from Lebanon. All Security Council resolutions concerning iraq should be implemented. That regime had arrogated the right, on the basis of sovereignty, to starve and abuse its people and subject iraq to dangers which threatened its unity and security. it falsely blamed the international community for the dangers and tragedies to which Iraq and its people had become subject. While the principles and objectives of human rights were universal in nature, their application must take into consideration the diversity of societies and their historical, cultural and religious backgrounds and legal systems.

SINGAPORE

Foreign Minister Wong Kan Seng said that there should be a "level playing field" with regard to all present and future members of a possible expanded Security Council. Anachronistic references to "enemy States" in the UN Charter should be removed. Suggestions regarding a different set of permanent members without veto were impractical. No country capable of making a contribution as a new permanent member would accept such second class status for long. It would only undermine the principle of great Power cooperation, without which the Council could not function. if permanent membership was expanded, at least two vetoes should be required to block a resolution. A UN perennially on the brink of financial insolvency could not meet the challenges of the next century. A permanent member should carry a larger portion of the UN's financial burden. The Council could not be effective "without a sword that is sharp and ready".

SOLOMON ISLANDS

Francis Saemala, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, supported the aspirations of the people of New Caledonia, including the Kanak community, and noted the progress of the Matignon Accords. "While sensitive to the varying and conflicting interpretations and expectations", it felt that all parties should maintain their commitment to that process. The South Pacific region should stay a nuclear-free zone, free of all types of radioactive waste. The new Solomon Islands Government, through its six-point initiative, was working constructively with its neighbour, Papua New Guinea, to find a lasting peaceful solution to their border problems. Fisheries was the major economy of Solomon islands, which supported the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. It appealed to distant-water fishing nations to cooperate with the management and conservation measures stipulated by the Forum Fisheries Agency. Small island States shared unique limitations, which underscored the need for sustainable management of resources.

SRI LANKA

Foreign Minister Shahul Hameed said the search for a po solution in Sri Lanka continued. "In the thick of the conflict, we have maintained the flow of food, medical and other supplies and services, such as education and health, to the affected areas." The uncontrolled movement of arms to "extremist fringe groups" threatened to destabilize small countries. In 1971, Sri Lanka had proposed the declaration of the indian Ocean as a zone of peace. The world scene had since changed and the time had come to examine new, alternative approaches. Another Sri Lankan initiative was the Indian Ocean Marine Affairs Conference, to develop the region's marine resources. With regard to national disputes, UN intervention must be considered only on request of the Member State concerned. Indigenous peace efforts must be encouraged. Sri Lanka favoured creating a border disputes commission, to deal with that obstacle to regional unity.

SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC

Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Shara said: "Those who are trying to make people believe that the Middle East has suddenly been transformed into an oasis of peace and prosperity know better than anyone that peace, stability and prosperity cannot possibly coexist with occupation, arrogance and the denial of the rights of others." Israel should stop misleading world opinion by portraying itself as a victim. Syria would not give up an inch of its occupied territories. "We have the right to wonder about the reasons behind the ongoing unjust campaign against the Arabs and Muslims, who are slandered merely because some individuals have allegedly committed a terrorist act against Western targets, while not a word is uttered against those who are truly responsible for terrorist acts against thousands of Arab victims both in the occupied territories and southern Lebanon." The time had come for "an awakening of the Western conscience". In today's international scene "we see little construction and few new breakthroughs: we see many ruins, much chaos and numerous unanswered questions".

TAJIKISTAN

Emomali Rakhmonov, Head of State and Chairman of the Supreme Council, said Tajikistan had gone through the horrors of a civil war. "We are determined to carry out democratic transformations in our country and to acknowledge and respect philosophical, religious, ideological and political choice as an inalienable right of the individual. ... We are prepared for dialogue with all the social forces in our country to achieve national reconciliation, civil harmony and stability in Tajikistan." Work was continuing on election laws and a new Constitution, with maximum attention to protect human rights. He was concerned over attempts at regionalization of the internal conflict in Tajikistan. Tajikistan was "not hatching any hostile plan" with regard to Afghanistan and was encouraged by the notable speed-up in the negotiating process. By the middle of September, more than 35,000 Tajik refugees - more than half the total - had returned home from Afghanistan, he said.

THAILAND

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said that, with the end of the cold war, a new spirit of friendly cooperation prevailed in South-East Asia. For the first time in recent memory, the region was free of major armed conflict. With the return of peace and normality to Cambodia, Thailand was confident that the country would resume its rightful place in the South-East Asian family of nations. With cold-war constraints on UN regional intervention removed, the Organization was in an ideal position to cooperate with ASEAN to ensure peace and stability in South-East Asia. The foundation for such cooperation already existed. These countries of South-East Asia were forging economic links through "special economic zones" and "growth triangles", which would promote friendship and cooperation in the region and provide a nucleus for greater interaction with other parts of the world.

TURKMENISTAN

Deputy Prime Minister Boris O. Shihmuradov said Turkmenistan intended to eliminate all its nuclear weapons and would continue its support for the NPT, the chemical weapons Convention, and the bacteriological (biological) weapons Convention. In a new pact with Iran, the 1,500-kilometre border between the two countries would be transformed into a border of peace and cooperation. Turkmenistan also had a political dialogue with Afghanistan and with the authorities of the northern and north-western provinces, signing recently a three-party memorandum on construction of a railroad from Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan, providing an outlet to the Indian Ocean. Turkmenistan supported Russia's efforts to establish order and conditions for the active continuation of political reforms and the full dismantling of the totalitarian system and its replacement with a system chosen by the people. Turkmenistan's geopolitical situation enabled it to bridge the gap between two major regions.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Foreign Minister Rashid Abdullah Al-Noaimi wanted a direct dialogue with Iran with regard to Iran's occupation in 1971 of the Emirate's three islands - Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa. He appealed to Iran to return the islands. The Iraqi regime still procrastinated regarding implementation of relevant Security Council resolutions. His country welcomed the Declaration of Principles between the PLO and Israel as a positive first step towards a comprehensive settlement, to enable Palestinians to exercise their inalienable rights. In restructuring the Security Council, the principle of equitable geographical representation of all regional groups should be taken into consideration, to reflect the transformations in the international political arena. Peacemaking and peace-keeping operations at regional and international levels should take account of historical, geographical, political, social and cultural characteristics of each State.

UZBEKISTAN

President Islam Karimov said his country was concerned at the continued conflict in Tajikistan and on the Tajik-Afghan border. Uzbekistan favoured the total abolition of nuclear weapons and wanted Central Asia as a nuclear-free zone. it would welcome the establishment by the UN of a regional commission to coordinate efforts against the "narcobusiness". A special group under the Security Council could analyse and forecast emerging international conflicts for rapid preparation of recommendations for the Council and other UN bodies. The Council should "adequately reflect the socio-economic, ethno-cultural, religious and spiritual diversity of today's world". Its currently conservative structure should be reconsidered. The UN should be "the world's principal tool for the prevention of new hotbeds of confrontation which could jeopardize human progress". Uzbekistan favoured greater UN involvement in preventing global ecological disasters, and aid to save the Aral Sea. The world's nations were on the "threshold of a new millenium". Uzbekistan was convinced that there was "no alternative to peace, cooperation and universal security".

VIETNAM

Deputy Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said progress towards restoration of peace in a number of places, especially in Cambodia and the Middle East, demonstrated that, through peaceful negotiations, conflicts, once fierce and protracted, could be settled. Cambodia and the UN should take effective measures to protect Vietnamese residents living peacefully in Cambodia and ensure their safety. Member States should have a say in determining the objectives and guiding principles for decisions undertaken by the Security Council with regard to international peace and security. Only by so doing could the UN truly be a universal Organization and a common instrument for the community of nation-States. The UN should reform its organization and mode of operation to "ensure democracy, justice and equality for all Member States". Using imposed standards of human rights and democracy as preconditions for inter-State cooperation was a manifestation of inequality in international relations.

YEMEN

Foreign Minister Mohamed Salem Basendwah said the PLO-Israel agreement would not bring peace unless significant steps were taken at the levels of other Arab-Israeli negotiating tracks. Yemen hoped that the role played by the two co-sponsors of the Arab-Israeli negotiations would prompt Israel to "abandon the policy of force and arrogance which it has pursued out of its feelings of military superiority, and because of the international support and protection it has always enjoyed, as well as the special treatment extended to it by the Western Powers". The blockade against Iraq was no longer justified. Iraqis' suffering had "reached an intolerable level". Yemen did not believe that the international community was "prepared to accept the death of innocent women, children and old people". Kuwait's sovereignty, independence and security could not be guaranteed indefinitely by dependence on international protection alone, but must have a solid basis in "sound and equitable relations" between Kuwait and Iraq.

ALBANIA

Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi said that his country - led by "people possessed of new aspirations, ideologies and ideas" - was in the process of an overall democratic restructuring. Economic reform was also occurring, aimed at a "total restructuring of a dosed and inefficient economy on the path to a free and open market economy". Positive results included increasing agricultural production by 25 per cent through land privatization; establishing a fixed exchange rate: and lowering inflation from 15 per cent monthly in 1992 to 0.9 per cent in March 1993. A "broad democratic space" should be created all over the Balkans to allow, among other things, freedom of communication and movement for the more than 7 million Albanians who lived in that space. Placing Kosovo under UN protection and control was the only guaranteed way of preventing conflict from spreading. Preventive deployment was fully justified, because of the threat that the "outbreak of an intra-Balkan armed conflict would pose to international peace and security".

ARMENIA

Foreign Minister Vahan Papazian said that his "small, land-locked, newly independent country of 3.5 million" was the only democracy in the region - an "island of stability in a sea of political chaos and turmoil". The conflict between the people of Nagorny-Karabakh, who were striving for self-determination, and the Azerbaijani Government, which was refusing to address the people's rights and concerns, continued to threaten the security and stability of the whole region. It had claimed over 10,000 lives and caused "close to a million innocent people to be uprooted from their homes during the past five years". As an interested party, his country saw "no alternative to the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict", which could be reached within the Minsk Conference of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Once peace was established, legal questions - first and foremost, the status of Nagorny-Karabakh - could be negotiated.

AZERBAIJAN

Yashar Aliyev, Permanent Representative to the UN, said his country had "fallen victim" to an "undeclared war" being waged against it for six years by Armenia, which sought to "fulfil its territorial claims". The sad results of that aggression were that 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's territory was occupied by Armenian troops, and 1 million civilians had no homes or means of survival. Economic infrastructure and unique historical and cultural sites had been destroyed. His country hailed the efforts of the international community to achieve a peaceful settlement of the conflict. The Minsk Conference should be preceded by the complete liberation of Azerbaijan's occupied territories.

BELARUS

Foreign Minister Pyotr K. Kravchanka said his country was one of the four States that had inherited the strategic nuclear potential of the former Soviet Union, but it had "renounced the prestige of a nuclear State" and had chosen non-nuclear status. In 1992, it had been the first to remove tactical nuclear weapons from its territory. Having put forward in 1990 the idea of creating a "non-nuclear belt" from the Baltic to the Black Sea, Belarus had been transforming its territory into a part of such a belt. Although it did not manufacture battle tanks, it had "more tanks per capita than any other European State". His country was making an enormous contribution to strengthening regional and international security by destroying the weapons of what had been the "most powerful military tank district" in the former Soviet Union. Chernobyl - the "most terrible nuclear disaster" - had resulted in the growth of cancer, especially among children, and considerable "social and psychological stress".

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

President Alija Izetbegovic stated that an "impending humanitarian tragedy" was unfolding in his country, and it was "no longer possible to speak of non-intervention". The UN must either follow through with its intervention or decide to rescind it. A mediation team should include a representative of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which would most likely be "the agent of enforcement". The proposed partition was unfair, since it sought to "satisfy the aggressor's appetite for an inequitably large share at the expense of the victim." He wanted "minimal adjustment" to recent peace proposals: that a Bosnian republic within a Union of the Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina be "viable geographically, economically, politically and defensively"; that "aggressor forces" surrender control of territories seized so that Bosnians could return to their homes; that enforcement of a settlement be guaranteed; and that if the international community could not implement the peace plan, his country be allowed to defend itself.

BULGARIA

President Zhelyu Zhelev said that by virtue of its geopolitical situation, his country, which shared the longest land border with Serbia, had a key role in implementing economic sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro. Without Bulgaria, the sanctions would be "doomed to failure". The embargo had closed Bulgaria's direct route to Western European markets. Losses from sanctions against the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya were equal to one half of Bulgaria's external debt to commercial creditor banks, and dimmed the prospects for economic recovery. Compensation to Member States suffering from sanctions should be arranged. An active participant in the European organizations, Bulgaria would be the first post-Communist country to assume the presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the oldest European organization - the Council of Europe.

CROATIA

President Franjo Tudjman called the crisis in the former Yugoslavia the "most difficult" in the world today The UN Protect Force (UNPROFOR) in Croatia had been "misused by the Serbian extremist insurgents and their promoters, the Belgrade expansionists, to freeze territorial gains, continue |ethnic cleansing', and consolidate occupation". His country had shown "extreme patience" regarding settling the conflict with the Serbian minority but could not "tolerate indefinitely the occupation of its territories, the pressure of the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons from Croatian areas, and a situation in which the State is split". It could no longer be forced to accept the extension of the UNPROFOR mandate if its mission was not specified in "more resolute terms", and if the Serbs were not given an "ultimatum" to implement the peace plan. The Croats in Bosnia had made "major concessions for the sake of peace". For strategic, political and psychological reasons, the Croatian side could not agree to any further concessions.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Foreign Minister Josef Zieleniec said that "not a single window pane" had been broken during the division of the former Czechoslovakia. It made him believe that good will and common sense can lead to peaceful settlements, even of problems traditionally accompanied by violence". His country had also gained "priceless experience" in solving the problems resulting from the "disintegration of the totalitarian world". That was why it had sought non-permanent membership in the Security Council. The Czech Republic was managing the process of economic transformation without asking for direct financial assistance. It did not want to "siphon off scarce development resources" from countries whose situation was much worse. It shared in the work of the UN, supplying personnel for many missions, among other contributions. That demonstrated his country's "tradition of service to the international community, a tradition of shouldering our fair share of the international burden".

ESTONIA

President Lennart Meri said the Second World War was still continuing in his country in a "rather peculiar way", because the foreign armed forces which had occupied Estonia in 1940 still remained there. Estonia had for two years patiently conducted negotiations, but "without positive results". Two arguments had been used in "stalling and detouring" negotiations - one was the lack of housing for withdrawn forces. His country was ready to assist in solving that "essentially humanitarian problem". The second argument was "in a curious way linked to human rights" - that that troops were needed for the defence of human rights of Russians residing in the Baltic States. However, Russian residents of Estonia had "never supported this argument", since they had not wished to "become pawns in a political game". His country could not and would never accept the "division by 15 of the financial commitments of the former Soviet Union" to the UN, as Estonia was "never legally part" of the former Soviet Union.

HUNGARY

Foreign Minister Geza Jeszenszky said that his country wanted to see "democracy, prosperity, security and the institutions" - such such as the Council of Europe, the European Community and NATO - "gradually expand eastward". There was also a long-overdue need for a review of UN Charter provisions that implied a distinction between UN Member States "on the basis of their status of signatory or enemy State". On the eve of the UN's fiftieth anniversary, the elimination of that "obsolete distinction" would be "more than a gesture" towards a number of countries that had fully proved their commitment to Charter principles. Of particular concern was the situation of the Hungarian community in Vojvodina - a formerly autonomous province. "Successive waves of intimidation and discrimination" there had already "significantly reduced both the size and the proportion of the Hungarian minority". There continued to be a "constant threat of a further massive influx of refugees" into Hungary. Adequate international protection had to be sought for other ethnic communities and minorities in the former Yugoslavia.

LATVIA

President Guntis Ulmanis said that since his country had declared independence 75 years ago - on 18 November 1918 - it was "not a newly independent State". It still had to deal with the continuing presence of the former Soviet Union's military forces on its territory, and the Russian demand to "maintain three bases in Latvia": the radar station in Skrunda, the cosmic intelligence centre in Ventspils and the naval base in Liepaja. Latvia could not permit its soil to be "used for purposes that may be directed against third countries". Due to the current situation, foreign investment in Latvia had been "discouraged". An agreement on complete withdrawal would open a "new chapter" in the relationship between these two States. No other country had lost, as a result of occupation and colonialism, such a large part of its indigenous population during modern times. Restoration of independence had given Latvia the opportunity to improve its demographic situation. But its "historical minorities" - Russians, Belorussians, Poles, Jews and others - had their own schools and active national cultural societies, which helped maintain each group's national identity.

LITHUANIA

President Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas said that his country was "seeking its place on the new map of Europe" and hoped for closer cooperation between the countries of the Baltic Sea region. It welcomed the gradual demilitarization of the Kaliningrad region and the development of a free trade zone there. After the 31 August withdrawal of Russian troops from the Lithuanian territory, a fresh page had been turned in the relations between the Russian Federation and Lithuania. But the issue of compensation for damage inflicted during the occupation was still on the agenda. Greater and more effective assistance for democratic forces in post-communist States would "help decisively to rid the world of the remnants of totalitarianism and dictatorship". While regional interaction was broadening and the international organizations' role was being extended, large and powerful nations should not transform regional structures into "instruments of domination". He suggested a meeting of all Heads of States of post-communist countries to discuss "how to recover more quickly from the maladies of national egoism and ethnocentricity" that might be unavoidable in young States and fragile democracies.

POLAND

Foreign Minister Krzystof Skubiszewski said that the fate of countries in transition, not only in Central and Eastern Europe, but also on other continents, was not their problem alone, as their success or failure was "unavoidably going to exert a strong impact on other States". The world community should not fail to back up the transformation process and to "assist the new democracies in their continuing efforts to achieve reform, economic recovery, social progress and full participation in international exchanges". Individuals needed "better and easier access" to international protection of their rights and freedoms. Among new human rights mechanisms could be a small bureau in Warsaw - part of the UN Geneva office - to monitor human rights in Eastern Europe. A significant source of tensions and conflicts was the "growing gap between rich and poor nations". Even Europe had not been spared, threatened by the "emergence of a new |curtain', this one economic".

REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

Foreign Minister Nicolae Anton Tau said the presence of foreign military forces was the "principal source of insecurity and instability" for his country. The "huge amounts of military hardware and enormous weapons stockpiles" in Transdniestra could "easily be taken over by separatist forces". The "high degree of politicization" of the occupying forces and their support for the anti-constitutional regime in Transdniestra were the "main threats to the independence, integrity and security" of Moldova. Those efforts were aimed at "continuing and justifying" Russia's military presence in independent and sovereign UN Member States. Russia's final goal was obviously the "revival of the old imperial structures with the blessing of the international community". The active participation of Transdniestrian fighters in the recent Moscow rebellion had been a "logical consequence of the close ties between the Tiraspol leadership and the reactionary Russian parliament".

ROMANIA

Teodor Viorel Melescanu, Minister of State and Minister for Foreign Affairs, said his country's economy still faced "some major difficulties, inherent in the transition period". Also, "unfavourable external circumstances" - such as reduction in economic cooperation with neighbouring countries and the adverse effects of UN sanctions against Iraq, Libya and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - had triggered a dramatic fall in important economic sectors. in spite of "undeniable difficulties", there was "no turning back". Romania would respect and follow the "irreversible choice" of its people to "join the family of democratic nations". Unfortunately, "no progress whatsoever" had been made towards the political solution of the conflict in the eastern region of Moldova. Moreover, there was a "strange situation" in which the commander-in-chief of the 14th Russian army - a foreign army on the national soil of an independent country "without the consent" of that UN Member State - had been " recently |elected' as a member of the so-called local parliament". Withdrawal of foreign troops was the key to the solution of the Transdniestra conflict.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev said that developments in the former Yugoslavia, Abkhazia and Karabakh had revealed the "true depths of barbarism and the significant new threat of aggressive nationalism". It was "no less serious a threat to peace today than nuclear war was yesterday". His country had made peacemaking and the protection of human rights, particularly those of national minorities, the priority of its foreign policy - "first and foremost in the territory of the former USSR". It would spare no effort to strengthen the Commonwealth of Independent States and make it a "positive factor, not only regionally, but globally". Russia's peacemaking efforts were already yielding their first results with: no new hostilities in the Transdniestera region and South Ossetia; a national dialogue in Tajikistan; and active efforts to end the Abkhazian and Karabakh conflicts. All those problems were "too serious and too tragic for speculation about neo-imperial plans of Russia, diplomatic rivalry, or the search for new spheres of influence by neighbouring and distant Powers". His country proposed the imposition of international legal restrictions on the use in internal conflicts of the "most destructive and indiscriminate types of weapons", primarily military aircraft and artillery-rocket systems. Russia favoured transforming the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty into a "universal agreement of unlimited duration", and wanted strict compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention.

SLOVAKIA

Foreign Minister Jozef Moravcik said that reform measures had so far "not brought the expected economic revival". Difficulties were aggravated by the conversion of the armaments industry, which reduced military production to an "unprecedented 9 per cent of the 1989 level". That political decision to "close a whole major branch of Slovak industry without the necessary preparation for a real conversion", though highly moral, had not taken into account economic and social consequences. Slovakia was among the countries most severely afflicted by Security Council sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Slovakia, a member of 54 international organizations, wanted the "fastest possible integration, together with other countries of the Visegrad Four", in the European Community, NATO and the Western European Union, and membership in the Conference on Disarmament.

SLOVENIA

Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek said that together with other countries, either newly founded or which had "disengaged themselves from the shackles of limited sovereignty", Slovenia was not only an object of those changes, but a "protagonist in them". Europe should be able to "fill the security vacuum with democratic, forward-looking and adequate security arrangements for all" - more more so since it was the first time that security was not bound to increased defence spending. Existing security associations - such as NATO, the CSCE and the Western European Union - should be systematically extended, and there should be coordination between them and the UN. During the last two years, his country had "radically and unilaterally restricted its own military potential". Despite its proximity to the regions of armed conflict in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, his country had not been "directly involved". Nevertheless, there were 70,000 refugees in Slovenia.

THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC

OF MACEDONIA

President Kiro Gligorov was vitally interested in seeing an end to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The decision to accept an UNPROFOR contingent demonstrated the "enormous advantages of preventive diplomacy". UNPROFOR's presence had "greatly increased the feelings of security and trust" in UN peace-keeping activities on the part of his country's citizens. Peace and cooperation in the Balkans was his country's "permanent interest". Its efforts were aimed at establishing good relations with all its neighbours and at resolving "all existing problems with our southern neighbour". The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was a European country in transition, a landlocked country, a "country of transit and a developing country". As a result of sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro, which his country strictly observed, its gross national product had been "cut in half". His country's survival, democracy and economic development were "fundamentally dependent" on assistance from the international community.

UKRAINE

Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko said that after the disintegration of the USSR and the disappearance of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, his country was "compelled to exist next to a zone of decreased stability and of alienation and even tension". The declaration on the State sovereignty of Ukraine had proclaimed the intention of the State to "become non-nuclear in the future". Ukraine needed some $2.8 billion to dismantle and eliminate its "huge nuclear arsenal, the third largest in the world in terms of its combat potential". It also wanted the return of "nuclear components, obtained from nuclear warheads" which, after reprocessing, could be "used as fuel for nuclear power stations", and of nuclear materials extracted from the warheads of tactical missiles removed from Ukraine in 1992. Finally thousands of servicemen dismissed from the missile forces would have to be employed. His country was experiencing serious economic difficulties, compounded by losses due to Security Council sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

AUSTRALIA

Gareth Evans, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, called attention to an Australian study - Cooperating for Peace - suggesting that in defining criteria for embarking on peace operations, there should be clear and achievable goals, adequate resources, close coordination with other ongoing peacemaking activities, impartiality between the parties who have been in conflict, and a clearly designated termination point. The study supported "cooperative security" which emphasized reassurance rather than deterrence; was inclusive rather than exclusive; favoured multilateralism over unilateralism or bilateralism: and stressed the "value of creating habits of dialogue". With regard to UN reform, the Secretary-General should have an effective chain of command; the UN's critical funding problem must be resolved once and for all; and special attention should be paid to the machinery of preventive diplomacy.

AUSTRIA

Alois Mock, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, said that the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action represented an "important advance in the protection of human rights - all human rights - worldwide." But in the Balkans, the most serious human rights violations continued to be the "order of the day". His country was providing humanitarian relief and, with a population of 7 million, was also now hosting 70,000 refugees. The autonomy of the German-speaking and Ladin population of South Tyrol appeared to be effective, although certain issues remained unresolved. Since 1988, his country had sent troops, military observers, police or civilian experts to 12 of the new UN operations, and had recently set up a training centre for civilian peace-keeping and peace-building.

BELGIUM

Willy Claes, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, stressed that in order for the UN to meet the challenges of the future effectively, all Member States must pay their contributions fully and in a timely manner. It was regrettable that certain defaulting countries laid "claim to a privileged role" in the Organization's debates and decisions. The European Community had been inspired by a "profound desire for peacemaking and reconstruction". Regional integration could help "contain the collective frustrations and anxieties that fuel nationalist movements", and provide a "formidable incentive" for economic growth and a "strategic element in combating poverty". By uniting to form centres of stability and progress, participating countries "gradually free themselves of the mounting problems and crises which, at this time of tremendous change, tend to be more than they can cope with on their own".

CANADA

Prime Minister Kim Campbell said that since UN peace-keeping had been "invented in 1956 by Lester Pearson", her country had fielded almost 10,000 men and women in UN operations "in every corner of the world". Although costly, that contribution had been a "symbol of pride to most Canadians, a tangible expression of our national quest for a better world". Today, her country was providing "just under 4 per cent" of all UN forces. Recent peacekeeping operations had also revealed a "number of shortcomings". Major operations could no longer be run on an ad hoc basis - a "permanent strategic headquarters staff capable of controlling two or more large-scale, multidimensional operations" had to be put in place. Also, UN ability to provide "material and personnel speedily to a theatre of operations" had to be strengthened.

DENMARK

Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen stressed that Security Council membership should reflect the "situation of today", and developing countries had a "case for improving their representation" in that body. He favoured creation of a post of high commissioner for human rights. There were times when the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of a Member State "must yield to a decision by the international community to secure respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms such as freedom from hunger and protection from genocide". The UN must respond effective to the economic and social needs of developing countries, as there could be "no lasting peace and security unless the growing inequalities addressed". Social peace was "as important as strategic peace", and the World Summit for Social Development it would host was an "opportunity to put people at the centre of development".

FINLAND

Foreign Minister Heikki Haavisto said the UN must adopt stricter and clearer criteria and procedures before launching peacekeeping operations. The UN "must not overextend itself"; it could not be "present everywhere". Mandates must be precise and dear, the necessary funding must be secured and, before launching an operation, the Security Council "must see to it that the required contingents are available". One might ask whether a full-fledged General Assembly session every year was really necessary and productive. Alternatively, a "high-level political debate" and meetings of the Main Committees might be held every other year. The Nordic countries had initiated a reform of the UN operational activities for development. The "extraordinary extent and rapidity" of economic and social change, as well as the challenges of the global environment, necessitated reforms that were "even much more profound".

FRANCE

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said that his country had "spared no effort" to put an end to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. It provided an essential part of the humanitarian aid sent there, and its soldiers represented the largest of the contingents in the UN Protection Force. The enlargement of the Security Council must not be achieved "at the expense of one or another group of States" - it must preserve the capacity of the developing countries to "make their voices heard". on the other hand, a projected enlargement should not lead to a "paralysis of the Council". One could not "simultaneously speak" of UN reform, justice and international development and "exempt oneself from the primary financial obligation". It was "high time to measure the generosity of words against the yardstick of arrears due".

GERMANY

Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said that over the last four years, Germany had made a "greater financial effort than any other nation" to help the reformist countries in Eastern Europe on their road to democracy, the rule of law and a free market economy. His country was "engaged in a passionate debate over proposed constitutional amendments" to enable Germany to participate in all UN operations without restriction. However, the use of military means should be considered only if there was a "clear political blueprint" for resolving the conflict; "force must always be the last resort". Consequently, Germany's contribution to the UN would continue to be of a "mainly political and economic nature". Germany was prepared to assume responsibility as a permanent member of the Security Council, but wanted the Council to continue to consider the "growing importance of the third world" in any reform process.

GREECE

Foreign Minister Michael Papaconstantinou proposed a UN summit to adopt a "global agenda for the twenty-first century", to be held in Greece in January 2000. Its theme could be: "Partners for a Better World: On the Threshold of the Twenty-first Century". Since his country was the "cradle of the democracy that humanity as a whole now enjoys", it was the right place to hold such a conference. Cyprus remained divided, with 30,000 Turkish troops occupying 38 per cent of the Republic. In addition, "thousands of settlers from the mainland" had "upset the demographic balance of the population." His country was concerned over a "complete lack of progress towards a solution of the Cyprus problem" during 1993 because of the "unwillingness of the Turkish Cypriot leadership to engage in meaningful negotiations". Greece wanted a negotiated overall settlement in the former Yugoslavia. It urged Albania to grant fundamental rights to the Greek minority.

ICELAND

Jon Baldvin Hannibalsson, Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade, said that Agenda 21, while providing a "sound basis" for sustainable development, did not cover all harmful acts, including pollution of the marine environment from land-based activities and depletion of marine living resources in many parts of the world. At the UN Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks, Iceland had submitted a draft convention calling for increased regional cooperation in establishing conservation and management measures for those fish stocks and enforcement mechanisms. As a nation "overwhelmingly dependent on marine living resources", his country also supported an "international regime to govern all aspects of the uses of the oceans". Iceland strongly supported transforming the Rio Declaration into an "Earth Charter" before the fiftieth anniversary of the UN.

IRELAND

Dick Spring, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, said his country currently participated in 10 UN peace-keeping operations. Multi-faceted UN operations should be carried out in an "effective, transparent and humane" manner. The UN needed an effective military planning unit to ensure that the best military advice and information was available to the Secretary-General. His country had proposed a UN "code of conduct for conventional arms transfers", to encourage responsibility and restraint. Northern Ireland was a challenge to the British and Irish Governments. The conflict, while complex, was not "fundamentally incapable of resolution". The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle were "all to hand if only we can find the right way to fit them together". What was needed was a "collective will to rise above traditional suspicions and animosities and a readiness to look beyond areas of disagreement to areas where we can work together to mutual advantage."

ITALY

Foreign Minister Beniamino Andreatta said that peace-keeping, peace-enforcement and humanitarian relief missions took place "in the midst of conflicts with complex political causes, and tangled ethnic and national roots." In that environment, the unity of military command was an "unquestionable principle, without which no operation could succeed". Somalia was a situation characterized by the "standstill in the political process". The UN should step up its political efforts by appointing a "personality of great international prestige" to renew the political and diplomatic initiative with all Somali factions. African nations should be involved in the "normalization in Somalia". Since the Security Council was moving towards a "future of greater burdens and responsibilities", Italy suggested that, in addition to the permanent and non-permanent members, a third category - "semi-permanent members", to "rotate two at a time" - be established.

LIECHTENSTEIN

Prince Hans-Adam II believed that a basis for some solutions to today's many ethnic and national conflicts could be found "within the principle of self-determination", a value that had been "fully demonstrated in the traditional context of decolinization." Allowing communities within States to have "different levels of autonomy" according to the particular circumstances could "defuse many of the tensions which are such a potent source of conflict." Such principles might be elaborated in a convention "of general application." To make further progress, his country inscribed an item on the Assembly agenda on "Right of peoples to self-determination: Effective realization of the right to self-determination through autonomy". The ongoing discussion of equitable representation on and expansion of the Security Council was "timely and necessary" in light of the growth in UN membership.

LUXEMBOURG

Jacques F. Poos, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, External Trade and Cooperation, said that nationalism was "not in and of itself evil", but a "logical manifestation" of pride and self-confidence expressed after "long years of oppression". Once that "regained pride" was transformed into "open hostility towards everything that is different", then nationalism carried within itself the "seeds of grave danger". Extreme nationalism could be "seen in many places", but in the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, it had found its "most intolerable expression". Even in Western Europe, it could be seen in the "resurgence of racist and xenophobic incidents". Extreme nationalism was a "threat to the international order." Education with regard to tolerance should be renewed; and legal protection for minorities must be ensured. No lasting peace was possible while peoples were subjected to abject poverty and famine, having "no hope for progress towards greater justice and equality".

MALTA

Guido de Marco, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, said that the Helsinki Summit II endorsed his country's proposal that the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) "declare itself the regional arrangement in the sense of Chapter VIII of the Charter". Through similar arrangements at the regional level, peace-keeping operations could be more efficiently and economically dealt with by countries which, because of their regional obligations, could assume further responsibilities. Malta consistently defined its objective of becoming a member of the European Community as a "logical and natural culmination of our European vocation". The Mediterranean was a "region suffering the turmoil of problems in its midst". Malta supported a conference on security and cooperation in the Mediterranean, and proposed a council for the Mediterranean as a forum for political, economic and social dialogue for the region.

MONACO

Crown Prince Albert conveyed the "tremendous joy" of all Monegasques and inhabitant of the Principality of Monaco at his country's joining "this great world Organization". His country's commitment to peace was a "tradition of more than 100 year - a tradition observed by its Princes", whose dynasty would "shortly celebrate its 700th anniversary". His country - in full respect for the rule of law in domestic affairs and for "treaties and law in the international order", having "neither armed forces nor military arsenals", and bearing "no enmity to anyone at all" - was fully prepared to assist the UN in all its actions, undertaken "sometimes with great difficulty", aimed at maintaining and rebuilding peace. Monaco also set for itself the "priority of protecting our environment", both natural and cultural, so that it might provide a "healthy, enriching and balanced life for all".

NETHERLANDS

Foreign Minister Pieter Hendrik Kooijmans was proud to host the international War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague. it also welcomed the formation of the "stand-by forces planning team", to draw up an inventory of rapid deployment of peace-keeping forces. The UN should take a "long, hard look" at its own management structure. "Management by objectives, transparency and accountability" - those key phrases must become "household words" in the UN vocabulary. The "painful paradox" was that the Secretariat's "relative success at shoestring budgeting" seemed to "contribute to a further deterioration in payment discipline" among Member States. The UN did "not serve an a la carte menu: dissatisfaction should be voiced in debate and by force of argument, not by withholding assessed contributions".

NEW ZEALAND

Donald Charles McKinnon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that the breakdown of the bipolar world order had some unexpected consequences - "some would liken the result to taking the lid off a pressure-cooker". Conflicts seemed to have "burst out everywhere", and in human terms those consequences were "horrific". The UN was becoming more and more involved, and recent peace-keeping operations had highlighted the risks to UN personnel. His Government wanted all possible measures to ensure the safety of UN staff. New Zealand had made special provision for refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia and Cambodia. It had one of the highest per capita resettlement ratios in the world. But that was "addressing the symptoms, not the cause". The ultimate objective must be to create or recreate conditions that allowed refugees to "return in safety and dignity to their own homes and homelands".

NORWAY

Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland fully supported the efforts of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia. As a major provider of humanitarian assistance to the area, Norway believed that although international attention was focused on the "terrible ordeal of the Muslims", there were also Croats and Serbs who suffered greatly as well. Coordination and cooperation between UN peace-keeping operations, humanitarian agencies and non-governmental humanitarian organizations must improve. Norway favoured convening a conference to improve "our capacity to organize real peace operations incorporating both humanitarian and military tasks". A unified UN peace-keeping budget must be introduced. As the eighth-largest contributor to the UN system in absolute terms and "by far the largest in per capita terms", Norway found it "exceedingly difficult to understand how so many countries fail to honour their obligations".

PORTUGAL

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said that five African countries officially used Portugese, and his Government had "steadily deepened" its ties with them in all areas. Based on a common culture and values, his country was also developing, together with Brazil and those African States, a "true community of Portugese-speaking nations" characterized by "solidarity and tolerance". In Angola, dialogue between the Government and the National Union for the Total independence of Angola (UNITA) was the only way to bring about a "lasting solution and a durable peace". Portugal was deeply involved in the Mozambique peace process - not only by active contributions to the UN operation there, but also by participation in structures created by the General Peace Agreement. It accepted in full the relevant UN resolutions on East Timor, which rejected "military conquest as the basis for claiming territorial enlargement", and clearly established the need to respect East Timor's territorial integrity and the right to self-determination.

SAN MARINO

Gabriele Gatti, Secretary of State for Foreign and Political Affairs, said that his people were particularly concerned with minorities, their inalienable right to free existence and well-balanced development, respect for their cultures and religions, and the real exercise of those rights "under the same conditions enjoyed by the majorities". Because San Marino had a "numerically small population", history had taught it to "offer hospitality and express solidarity with the weak, the oppressed and the victims of persecution". Freedom must be based on a "complex system of limits so that no man, in the exercise of his rights, can ride roughshod over the rights of another". The recourse to force, even when it seemed "indispensable to maintain or restore democracy", was "an unfair and dangerous option". Europe was "plagued by conflicts" that offended peoples, minorities, women, children and the poor. The UN had the ability, the authority and the structures to prevent and solve conflicts, manage crises and maintain peace.

SPAIN

Foreign Minister Javier Solana Madariaga said the question of the "decolonization of Gibraltar" was of fundamental importance to Spain, which was firmly determined to continue negotiations with the United Kingdom in a "constructive spirit and on the basis of the Brussels Declaration of 27 November 1984". Those negotiations should duly take into account the legitimate interests of the population, based on the doctrine established by the General Assembly that the decolonization of Gibraltar was "not a case of self-determination but of the restoration of the territorial integrity of Spain". He fully supported UN efforts to solve the outstanding problems of Western Sahara. A referendum would "pave the way for the climate of understanding and cooperation" to deal with challenges in the region. The third lbero-American Summit, held in Brazil in July 1993, had stressed the growing interrelationship among the concepts of development, democracy and human rights.

SWEDEN

Foreign Minister Margaretha af Ugglas said the need for reform in the peace-keeping area was undisputed. The world community should "react flexibly to dynamic situations". Member States should provide personnel and equipment on a stand-by basis for use at short notice. improved coordination was needed between peacekeeping operations and humanitarian relief efforts, as they were increasingly interrelated. "Scarce resources should not be wasted on activities lacking well-defined goals." Flagrant abuse of human rights was "still a tragic reality for millions of people in many parts of the world". All States had a duty to adhere to the international human rights conventions. The establishment of a high commissioner for human rights would enhance the capacity of the international system to "deal more directly with emergencies and grave violations".

TURKEY

Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin said that neither in the Balkans nor in the Caucasus, nor anywhere else, would his country "accept the acquisition of territory by force". The "sinister success of Serbian expansionism in Bosnia" had "emboldened aggressors elsewhere", and a similar tragedy was occurring in the Caucasus. With regard to Cyprus, the "common desire and purpose" of the international community was to promote an early and comprehensive solution. Whatever the reasons that might still divide the two sides, the "negotiating process must continue". All concerned must "display realism and act with vision in search of a negotiated, durable solution". once the "general elections in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" were over, the Turkish Cypriot side would "again be able to continue to play its constructive role in the negotiating process".

UNITED KINGDOM

Douglas Hurd, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, said that never had there been a time when the UN had been "so discussed, so misunderstood, so needed". If the world community wanted the UN to work better, it should give the Secretary-General the support he needed "in thoughts, words, deeds and money". Many peace-keeping operations could be carried out more effectively by regional organizations or single countries on behalf of the UN. For example, the UN was already building "valuable links" with the CSCE and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Regional organizations could also be asked to help with training. it was "empty to pretend that we can impose peace with justice on every disorder, every dispute, outside our national borders". But what the UN could do, it should do well - Cambodia and Namibia were success stories. However important peace-keeping might be, "successful preventive diplomacy would be better".

UNITED STATES

President William J. Clinton said the world was "no longer divided into two armed and angry camps". it was a turning point, a "moment of miracles". As a country that had over 150 racial, ethnic and religious groups, the United States policy was rooted in a "profound respect for all the world's religions and cultures". But it opposed extremism that produced "terrorism and hate". Broadly based prosperity was clearly the strongest form of preventive diplomacy. Democracy was "rooted in compromise, not conquest" - it rewarded "tolerance, not hatred". Three avenues were of major importance: nonproliferation of the "world's deadliest weapons": conflict resolution; and sustainable development. UN peace-keeping held the "promise to resolve many of this era's conflicts". But the UN could not become "engaged in every one of the world's conflicts". If the American people were to say "Yes" to UN peace-keeping, the Organization "must know when to say |No"'. As world corporations were finding ways to "move from the industrial age into the information age - improving service, reducing bureaucracy and cutting costs" - the time had come to "reinvent the wa United Nations operates as well".

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

Lionel Alexander Hurst, Permanent Representative to the UN, condemned current models of development - based on "consumption, distribution and disposal" - as destructive to the environment. Harmful gases were being emitted into the Earth's atmosphere, altering the global environment. "The effects of climate change, global warming and sea-level rise will reduce small island States like mine to zero", he said. "Our very existence is at stake; our peace and security are threatened by the actions of large and wealthy States whose presumptions about the Earth's resources need to be completely revised:' The forthcoming Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (April 1994) would serve to "articulate a programme of action to eliminate these man-induced, looming catastrophes". He was also confident that "the forces of goodwill, decency and democracy" would prevail in Haiti. "No previous Security Council embargo ... was ever as swiftly effective as was the embargo imposed on the illegitimate regime in Haiti:"

ARGENTINA

Guido di Tella, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Worship, said that there has been "remarkable progress in the consolidation climate of peace and detente in Latin America as a whole, thanks to the restoration of democracy and to economic reforms". Just as the region has worked toward economic integration, it should develop a "structure of regional security adapted to the present times and based on cooperation, balance and transparency". Argentina supported "total transparency" in its nuclear programme and had signed an agreement with Brazil on full-scope safeguards with the international Atomic Energy Agency. Progress in negotiating settlements with the United Kingdom over the Malvinas Islands had added to security in the region. However, there was still an impasse regarding oil rights.

BAHAMAS

Orville A. Turnquest, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Attorney-General, said that in countries like the Bahamas, social tensions were "reordering priorities", making it necessary to deal with "problems of a pandemic nature", such as poverty, illicit drugs, crime, violence, international terrorism, human rights violations and disease, and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The new world order would be nothing more than a "shifting of power centres" if the UN did not address: the peace dividend's impact on development: "stagnant growth" rates in "less-recently sovereign" countries; the need to ensure that trade liberalization facilitated by "megablocs" would be fair; and the risk of environmental awareness becoming another trade conditionality. The Bahamas also supported the Governors island Accord to restore democracy in Haiti.

BARBADOS

Foreign Minister Branford M. Taitt, calling social development "among the greatest challenges facing the United Nations in the twenty-first century", welcomed the World Summit on Social Development, to be held in 1995. The UN must adopt radical measures to attack and eliminate conditions "which fuel the growing and unacceptable levels of poverty". Barbados also welcomed the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small island Developing States, which it would host in April/May 1994. International peace would be impossible if the global environment continued to be "sullied by rampant human rights abuses", or if "widespread resurgence of racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance, ethnic conflicts and various other forms of human rights abuses" continued.

BELIZE

Dean O. Barrow, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Economic Development, and Attorney General, said that the overall outlook for world security remained bleak due to fratricidal struggle and the crushing burden of armaments. Governments must forswear profiteering from the sale or sponsorship of the sale of armaments and should promote regional and subregional systems of cooperation in the areas of security, narcotics interdiction and counterterrorism. international law should be modernized to proscribe and severely punish trafficking in arms. Belize favoured a standing UN force under unified UN command, and supported a reformed Security Council with more "equitable representation". There should be new efforts to end "corrupt practices in government and business, both national and international".

BOLIVIA

Constitutional President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada called for greater support from developed countries but not just in the form of aid. "The motto should be |trade, not aid'. Yet it would seem that the fate of the underdeveloped world is no trade and no aid'." Bolivia did not want "special treatment", but only "to be allowed to work and to export, and not to be obliged just to export the most talented and vigorous people" in its society to the developed world. Economic growth would also reduce the need for peasants to Cultivate coca leaves, So far, Bolivia had reduced coca leaf cultivation by 50 per cent. He expressed concern that the end of the cold war had not engendered an increase in international cooperation and solidarity "There was greater cooperation during the era of confrontation because of the desire to defend third-world countries against the communist threat."

BRAZIL

Foreign Minister Celso Luis Nunes Amorim said that the "inherent preoccupations of the cold war" had shifted from an East-West axis to a North-South orientation. "New concepts have been used to justify discriminatory acts with repercussions for the countries of the South." Despite problems of underdevelopment, Brazil's task was to solve its "macroeconomic problems while steering dear of the authoritarian temptation" and to address difficult human rights questions, which were "deeply intertwined with the social imbalances inherited from decades of insensitivity rooted in authoritarian rule . The Government was taking steps to strengthen its presence in the Amazon region to "protect simultaneously the population and the environment". Brazil also urged the UN to apply the "democratic ideal" to the Security Council.

CHILE

Foreign Minister Enrique Silva Cimma said that Chile's present Government "viewed economic development as inseparable from social development". Chile had initiated the 1995 World Summit for Social Development because today's world posed "questions which must be answered without delay". The international community and the UN needed to eradicate "poverty, hunger and other social scourges". Chile also called for economic restructuring as a way to "raise the possiblity of saving millions of human beings who are currently marginalized, living in minimal security conditions". The renewal of the General Agreement on Thriffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations provided hope for the developing world; however, "insistence on intransigent positions" was impeding world trade and creating "insurmountable barriers to development". Chile was making a sustained effort to participate in Pacific Basin agreements in order to promote the "liberalization of regional and worldwide trade".

COLOMBIA

President Cesar Gaviria Trujillo stated that Colombia was integrating its economy with the world and "demanding that other nations open their markets" to its products. He strongly endorsed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as a "decisive step in the right direction to liberalize trade relations, to our mutual benefit, between North and South". NAFTA would result in thousands of new jobs and increased economic growth. "The world must see that open markets and free trade are perhaps the best hope for serving the collective interests of both North and South." Colombia was committed to combating drug trafficking and would not rest until these criminal activities were "wiped from the face" of its land. This would require "determined action with courage and political will on the part of many more nations", since Colombia could not "counter sophisticated international organized crime by simply developing national or bilateral strategies".

COSTA RICA

Bernd H. Niehaus-Quesada, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Worship, decried "those who were interested in a Central America full of bloodshed and trenches" and did not want to deal with a "Central America of the poor, the Central America that calls for cooperation for development, for understanding of human and economic tragedies". The region had decided to embark "on a new life, cemented in peace, democracy and freedom". But after taking those actions, it was seeing the "doors close one after another". The entire international community should help to consolidate the "achievements of the Central American peace process". in particular, industrialized countries must fulfil promises they made at the Rio Summit - that "is, that they provide new and additional financial aid, something they have so far done on a fairly meagre scale".

CUBA

Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina Gonzalez regretted that the end of the cold war had not "resolved any of the fundamental problems facing humankind", but had "created many others". Principles of independence and national sovereignty were being "shredded to pieces" and were guaranteed "only to a few powerful countries whose views prevail", even in the UN. A process of democratization should begin to find solutions to the "malformations with which the United Nations was born and with which it developed". one malformation was the veto privilege linked with the might of States" in the Security Council. He wanted enforcement of General Assembly resolution 47/19, calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba. Nevertheless, "in open defiance" of the General Assembly, the blockade has been reinforced during the last few months.

DOMINICA

Brian Alleyne, Minister for External Affairs, addressing the need to restructure the UN, said: "While the United Nations becomes more active in peace-keeping in various parts of the world, programmes aimed at assisting developing countries must not be allowed to suffer." Dominica was experiencing economic problems due to a collapse in the banana industry, and a "threat to the banana industry in Dominica is also a threat to the fundamental human rights of its people". The international community should support the country's efforts to "ensure the survival of its economy and the protection of its peoples' political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights". Dominica also supported restoring democracy in Haiti, and was "willing to contribute to the civilian police and training contingent to Haiti to assist in the return of President Aristide".

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Juan Aristides Taveras Guzman, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was pleased that the disputes that had "disturbed the peace and hindered the development" in Central America were being resolved at the negotiating table. The international community should lend real assistance to stabilize the democratic regime and to ensure the economic reconstruction of Haiti. Among the major challenges facing mankind were economic crises, imbalances between the North and the South, and environmental crises. "Gradual destruction of ecosystems and the deteriorating quality of life of human beings" must be changed. His country, committed to combating drug trafficking, had just become party to two important UN drug instruments - the Convention against Illicit Trafficking and the 1972 Protocol to the Single Convention on Narcotic drugs.

ECUADOR

Foreign Minister Diego Paredes said the UN "must not forget that peace is threatened not only by military aggression but also, and even more, by situations of injustice or crisis that ought to be settled in a spirit of international solidarity". One way to strengthen economic growth would be through free trade. However, while developed countries "make splendid speeches in favour of free trade, the powerful countries continue to impose measures" - such as placing import barriers on Latin American bananas - that "contradict their fine words". The UN should review the financial policies of the international credit agencies to make sure that the flow of capital from the developing world to the developed countries "does not, as has happened to date, exceed the amount of aid or investment channelled to the developing countries".

EL SALVADOR

President Alfredo Felix Cristiani-Burkard said that El Salvador was striving to promote a culture of peace. In proceeding along this long path, it needed the international community's political, moral and financial support. "We must reincorporate ex-combatants in institutional and productive life through programmes such as the transfer of land for farming:" El Salvador also needed timely technical and economic support to build the structures of peace more swiftly. The country could then wipe from its mind the "discouraging evidence that it is easier to find the money for war than for peace". As the East-West conflict has disappeared, "almost no-one speaks about the North-South conflict or alternative alignments". Meanwhile, the "serious problems of inequality, critical poverty and dependence have not been resolved". In this new scenario, the UN has a central role as the "instrument which will make peace processes viable".

GRENADA

Francis Alexis, Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs and responsible for Caribbean Common Market affairs, said poverty debt, inadequate resources, marginalization and the lack of secure markets for Grenada's products were dealing "serious blows to social, economic and political stability". He suggested concessioned trade as one way to produce a "level playing field" for developing countries. Free trade was not "always synonymous with fair trade: factors of size, resource endowment and levels of development must be duly considered in setting trade relations". This was "particularly so with small, open, primary-producing economies, where one serious natural disaster, such as a hurricane", could devastate all the fruits of national labour invested in bananas, cocoa and nutmeg.

GUATEMALA

Foreign Minister Arturo Fajardo Maldonado said that his country's vote for a new Congress had "no precedent" in Guatemala's political history. Guatemala was working to strengthen its efforts in the area of human rights, with a new "National Peace Plan and the Official Declaration on Human Rights". The plan "seeks lasting peace, achieved by putting an end to armed internal confrontation and seeing to it that the roots of hatred, resentment and distrust that have divided us are extirpated through negotiation and never again by violence". The UN and the Organization of American States should "increase their presence and technical contributions" to help Guatemala strengthen machinery for protecting human rights. Security was no longer an "exclusively geopolitical matter falling within the framework of bipolar confrontation". It should include new elements, including democracy, development, preservation of the environment, combating drug trafficking, food security and population trends.

GUYANA

President Cheddi B. Jagan thanked the UN for "ensuring that the democratic will" of the people of Guyana was fully respected during his country's recent electoral process. Developing countries must face such problems as high debt and weak economies. "Some 90 cents of each dollar earned now go towards the repayment of the national debt". Debt relief was urgently needed if developing countries were to "eradicate poverty,protect environment and play a meaningful role in expanding world trade". Unfortunately, the North-South dialogue had become "a dialogue of the deaf". Meanwhile, progress would only occur when "inequitable and unjust economic and trade practices in the global system" were removed.

HAITI

Claudette Werleigh, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Worship, said that the Haitian people had been "waging an earnest and constant struggle for the restoration of democracy" and for fundamental rights "stolen from it in the coup d'etat of 30 September 1991". Haiti was "on the eve of turning this painful page" in its history. She appealed to "all those who wish in good will to build a better life today and a better future for the children of Haiti" to give her country "an opportunity to renew its path of progress". The international community should maintain pressure "so that the minority forces opposing the democratic aspirations of the Haitian people' would find themselves "completely isolated". She also expressed concern that "the South remains in a position of subordination and dependence, which prevents it from managing the new world order well". The international system needed "a profound reform", especially in the fields of "trade, finance and technology". Haiti supported the process of UN reform to increase its effectiveness.

HONDURAS

Foreign Minister Macarias Zapata wanted to see Central America established as a "re ion of peace, freedom, democracy and development". He appealed to Central American countries to coordinate efforts toward economic integration and social development. To establish peace in the region, priority must be given to the geographical areas most affected by poverty. Greater social participation should be promoted by encouraging human development at the local level. Social development in macroeconomic policies would encourage both domestic and foreign investment. All attempts to achieve prosperity in Central America must inevitably involve a willingness on the part of the industrialized States to "establish an open, multilateral trade system" that would give the region access to competitive markets. He asked the international community to give greater support to the "universal organs for the legal settlement of disputes".

JAMAICA

Paul D. Robertson, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, said that the global community was at a "crossroads in history, poised between the prospect of peaceful economic progress through globalization and technological advancement and a relapse into conflict fuelled by poverty, political tyranny and ethnic strife". An "Agenda for Development" must establish "the need for a favourable international economic environment and a nondiscriminatory trading system. . . . If human needs are not adequately met, if human resources are not developed, we destroy the very basis of sustained development: our people:" Migration - national and international - was a clear manifestation of social ills. If people do not find economic security in their native land, they go wherever they can find it - from rural to urban area: from one country or one continent to another."

MEXICO

Fernando Solana Morales, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said the UN of the next century should not become a "mechanism, however efficient, for balancing the interests of the most powerful". Instead, it must promote "equitable representation" in the Security Council. "Those who make the greatest contributions to the maintenance of peace, not necessarily those who are the largest producers and exporters of the world's weapons, should be members of the Council:" The right of veto was not democratic. He called for "political determination, imagination and strategic creativity and international cooperation" to stop the growth of the "terrible social cancer of drug abuse". The Assembly should also address the problem of "migratory currents", which were developing "with renewed vigour as the century draws to a close". All countries should have national plans based on "policies which make it possible for the inhabitants to live in a dignified manner in their own country".

NICARAGUA

President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro said: "We are in the process of shaking off an inheritance of 50 years of right-wing dictatorship and 10 years of left-wing dictatorship. At the same time, we are moving from a centralized economy to a social market economy." Nicaragua needed to build a democracy, "reconstruct a wounded society and compete economically with the world, all while following an economic adjustment plan" that left no resources for social investment. if foreign aid arrived late, democracy in Nicaragua could collapse. Countries like Nicaragua, Haiti and El Salvador could not compete with nations "that have not suffered the pain of the political, economic and social destruction caused by war". Her Government was making efforts to disarm civilian groups and to "prevent the thousands of weapons already confiscated from being used once again to undermine Nicaragua's democratic achievements and so undermine the regional stability of Central America".

PANAMA

Carlos Arosemena, Permanent Representative to the UN, saw drug addiction as the "main scourge of humanity", and called upon all States to repress drug trafficking and the resulting money-laundering activities. Panama had signed important treaties with the United States and the United Kingdom to fight drug trafficking, and it hoped to sign similar agreements with Latin American countries. He commended Central American countries for .striving to build a peaceful, free, democratic and developing region", but such peace would require actions capable of solving its economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems. He asked for the cooperation of all States, especially in the area of trade, and appealed to the General Assembly to "listen attentively to the demands of the lbero-American community", which felt that most products of its member States had been repeatedly "denied increased access to markets which have been traditionally accessible". Those States should also be resolved to put their financial situations in order and "not depend on the marketing of a few products".

PARAGUAY

President Juan Carlos Wasmosy hoped for agreement in the Uruguay Round negotiations so that markets would continue to open up "without any tariff or other barriers". international coexistence required that Paraguay seek to establish "mutually supportive understandings and agreements that will strengthen the collective economy". The Treaty on the integration of the Common Market in the Southern Cone pointed to a "higher and higher level" of cooperation to "harmonize economies:" and "reach better and broader understandings". He wanted a more balanced treatment of the social and economic issues on the international agenda. New global issues must not take attention away "from development and the struggle against poverty". To promote this spirit of interdependence, he suggested that the UN declare 30 July as the "World Day of Friendship".

PERU

Constitutional President Alberto Fujimori Fujimori said that "so called traditional democracy" had solved none of Peru's problems, including "hyperinflation, isolation from the international financial community, terrorism, drug-trafficking, corruption and internal and external debt". In exceptional circumstances, "when the civilized existence and survival of a nation is at stake, each country has to find its own course and its own solutions and then reconstruct its democracy. Failing this, it will simply become ungovernable." Peru's own political system was one of the most inefficient on the continent. His Government had to stop the crisis and the terrorism which steadily nourished it" so that the country would not collapse. Peru had recently received a letter from the Shining Path leader, asking for "a peace agreement". But he stressed that there could be "no negotiations with a genocidal terrorist group".

SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS

Kennedy A. Simmonds, Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, viewed the emerging international economic order as "one in which the developed and the more powerful countries" were creating "mega-sized trading and economic blocs, and seeking to establish rules designed to secure their own aggrandizement at the expense of small developing countries". industrialized countries were "seeking to redeploy the world's resources" for their own benefit. Only through development, however, would the world achieve "lasting peace". He suggested that the UN establish an office in the eastern Caribbean "to serve the interests of the smaller island-States". He also called for greater market access for Caribbean products. Any loss of the "limited access which these products from the Caribbean enjoy could have catastrophic consequences for the economies and lives of the people in the Caribbean".

SAINT LUCIA

William George Mallet, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Trade and Industry, said that the "world has seen an impressive political transformation". However, "if the price of these political gains is an exacerbated marginalization of the small developing countries, they will undoubtedly soon be dissipated in a sea of economic troubles" and social disruption. Caribbean developing island countries were particularly fragile, since they were "trapped in an international economic system which yields no quarter" to the problems and needs that are peculiar to them. in this post-cold-war era, aid was not always directed towards areas of greater need, but rather to areas with issues which were politically topical. Meanwhile, where there is little economic advancement, political gain will continue to prove transitory".

SAINT VINCENT & THE GRENADINES

Herbert George Young, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism, called Agenda 21 the "centrepiece" of international effort and hoped that the creation of the Commission on Sustainable Development would help ensure that the measures prescribed by it were adequately addressed. The international community should recognize the special characteristics and development at needs of small island States. Those who lived in small island States had "limited options in response to he international economic environment". Conferences such as the World Summit for Social Development offered hope that they would bring "tangible benefits". His country was committed to supporting indigenous people to ensure that they "continue to participate fully in national society".

SURINAME

Foreign Minister Subhas Mungra stated that without broad-based development, democracy would not take hold in the world. in Latin America and the Caribbean, which have been undergoing a steady process of democratization, it was the joint responsibility of the international community and developing countries to "see that this momentum is preserved". However, many people living in poor areas did not receive enough attention due to the "high priority given to issues of international peace and security". The annual peace-keeping budget had increased fivefold, while voluntary contributions to the UN Development Programme, the UN Fund for Population Activities and the UN Children's Fund had declined by 10 per cent. Favourable economic conditions could help strengthen peace. Therefore, Suriname favoured a programme "based on a combination of political, economic and social factors together with global security". The international community must address the need to alleviate the debt burden of developing countries and expand their export opportunities. Structural readjustments programmes also must recognize "the reality of developing countries".

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Annette des lles, Permanent Representative to the UN, stated that human suffering brought on by "economic stagnation" was just as "disconcerting and disheartening" as pain caused by war. And only true partnerships would be able to succeed in the "collective war on poverty, disease, unemployment and other challenges to development". A spirit of "cooperation and activism" was needed to "impel the international community to address economic and social questions" - perhaps in the form of a world economic summit. Poverty, unemployment and crime were "threatening the very fabric of societies" and were "clamouring for the concerted attention of the international community". The UN must also streamline its "administrative and operational performance" and address the "growing imbalance" between the demands being made upon the UN and the "ability of a growing number of States to meet the cost of these demands".

URUGUAY

Foreign Minister Sergio Abreu emphasized the close relationship between international trade, development and political stability Just as human rights cannot be subject to the whims of Governments, neither can free trade be limited by the pressures of national or sectoral interests", he said. Opening up markets was an "undertaking of benefit to all" and "protectionist policies" were "clearly incompatible with the rules of GATT". As Chairman of the Negotiating Committee of the GATT's Uruguay Round, Uruguay was concerned that after seven years, "certain trends continue to obstruct the multilateralization process". Nothing can be done individually today. "Interrrelationships exist between large economic blocs; no country can escape that reality:' Uruguay also urged the UN to inject an "energy for renewal" into its bureaucracy, and asked the Organization to strengthen international law to enhance security.

VENEZUELA

Foreign Minister Fernando Ochoa Antich said that while democratic regimes prevailed in almost all of Latin America, democracies were "still young and have experienced difficulties in recent months". Venezuela recently overcame a "severe political crisis", but it could "say with pride that democracy persists". His country must turn to problems facing its economy and environment. Only a "balanced and equitable growth rate" would preserve democracy, but this would entail the "full cooperation of the industrialized countries" in searching for development. illegal mining along the Amazonian border was "wiping out plants and animals" and "annihilating the local population". The global community must work together to preserve tropical forests, and make special efforts to take up the challenge of sustainable development in a zone where the "ecological balance is so precarious". Only by doing so would Venezuela be able to conserve Amazonia for future generations.