Statement of the Sultanate of Oman
Before
The Fiftieth Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly

Delivered by
H.E. Yousef bin Alawi Abdullah
Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs

At the outset allow me, on behalf of my country's delegation, to congratulate Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral on his election to the presidency of this important session of the General Assembly. His unanimous election to this high office attests to the role that his friendly country, Portugal, with which my country has enjoyed centuries of ties, plays in the international arena. His election is also testimony to his ability and wide diplomatic experience, which, we are sure, will enable the General Assembly to achieve the results we hope for.

I should also like to take this opportunity to pay special tribute to his predecessor, Mr. Amara Essy, the Foreign Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, for the skill and constructive manner in which he steered the work of the forty-ninth session.

The convening of this session coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the international community's agreement to establish the United Nations in order to safeguard international peace and security after the experience of two world wars. We are aware of the significant role that the United Nations has played ever since the end of the Second World War in maintaining the balance between the world Powers during what was known as the cold war era. That outstanding role of the United Nations was at the heart of the international cooperation that was given concrete form in enabling the peoples of the third world, with the help of the United Nations, to free themselves from the shackles of colonialism in Africa, Asia and South America. The United Nations bodies and specialized agencies helped the newly independent States to organize their socio-economic resources thanks to the persistent efforts of the Secretaries-General who headed the Secretariat and the respective Executive Secretaries of the specialized agencies. Here it is only fitting to remember Mr. Dag Hammarskj?ld, the Organization's second Secretary-General, who gave his life while working on behalf of the United Nations in the Congo in 1961. We should also remember those who were at the helm of the Secretariat beside Mr. Hammarskj?ld - Mr. Trygve Lie, the first Secretary-General, U Thant, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuéllar and the current Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros- Ghali - who have all played a significant role in strengthening mutual understanding amongst nations and helped the world to find peaceful solutions to its conflicts.

The history of the United Nations is full of many other figures who played an important role in promoting its march and in serving international peace and security. By way of example I mention Count Bernadotte, the International Peace Mediator in Palestine; General Burns, the Commander of the International Emergency Force in the Middle East; Mr. Gunnar Jarring, the International Peace Mediator between the Arabs and Israelis after the war of 1967; Mr. James Grant, the late Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund; Sadruddin Aga Khan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for many years; the late Olaf Palme, former Prime Minister of Sweden; the late Willy Brandt, former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany; Mr. Brian Urquhart, the former Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs; and many other brilliant figures who worked tirelessly and faithfully in these corridors.

We should also like to mention in particular the great achievements of the United Nations in the framework of its specialized agencies. Nobody can deny the achievements of these agencies in their respective fields of competence such as food and agriculture, science and education, civil aviation, architecture, reconstruction, health, postal services and telecommunications, meteorology, intellectual property, development, the liberalization of trade, not to mention the brilliant achievements of the humanitarian and development organizations such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as well as the remarkable role played by the other relevant regional organizations and committees within the framework of the United Nations.

These achievements constitute part of the rich assets accumulated by the United Nations over the 50 years that have elapsed since it was established with the aim of maintaining international peace and security. We believe that although the Organization has come a long way in laying the foundations of international peace and security, global peace in its broadest sense has yet to be achieved. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us all to support the United Nations in its forward movement in that direction so that the edifice of peace and international security may be completed and maintained.

The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the aim of organizing and coordinating world trade, eliminating the obstacles that obstruct access to foreign markets and encouraging the movement of capital and investment is another milestone on the way towards consolidating the edifice of international peace and security. The WTO should receive every support from the international community. The agreement on its establishment under the auspices of the United Nations should be an incentive and a challenge to the developing countries to promote the level of their economic and social development, increase their productive capacity and upgrade the level of their services in order for them to qualify to integrate their interests with those of the developed countries.

By the same token, the establishment of the WTO with the aim of achieving international economic balance on a basis of justice, equality and sustainable development, in no way remits the developed countries' obligations towards supporting and assisting the developing countries in working for that integration of their economies with the economies of the developed countries. As a matter of fact, those obligations are stipulated in the WTO agreement.

In the context of the United Nations action to consolidate the foundations of international peace and security, the Organization has managed, after 14 years of strenuous efforts, to conclude the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982. The entry into force of that Convention on 16 November 1994 is but another example of international cooperation in order to establish an equitable, just international order to govern the ocean space. Also, the recent efforts in this context with regard to Part XI of this important international Convention will no doubt enhance its universality.

In the area of disarmament, the United Nations has performed an outstanding role, even at the height of the cold war, as evinced by the signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The signing by more than 159 States of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction is yet another historic United Nations achievement. The Convention was the first to deal with the elimination of this category of overkill weapons on a global scale. It paved the way for agreement on the elimination of all other weapons of mass destruction.

As regards the protection of the environment, the international community has witnessed the dedication of world leaders at the 1992 Rio Conference to the task of halting the degradation of the environment. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity and Agenda 21 that resulted from this unique Conference have laid the foundations of a world partnership that addresses the problems of desertification, poverty and the degradation of the ecosystem which arise from the unrestrained use of natural resources.

All these conventions and programmes have gone on the record book as uncontested achievements accomplished by the United Nations. Such achievements apart, however, the United Nations has proved to be unable to cope with regional political issues that have international dimensions and are closely related to risks that could jeopardize international peace and security. When the cold war ended, regional problems erupted on the heels of each other and faced the United Nations and regional organizations alike with a real challenge.

With regard to the Middle East question, which we believe to be one of the most significant issues that concern the world at large, an important breakthrough has taken place on 28 September 1995, when the Israeli and Palestinian sides signed an historic accord in Washington D.C. that provides for the expansion of Palestinian self-rule. While we commend the accord, we voice the hope that it will enable the Palestinian people to achieve the objective of extending its authority over its own land and of building its national entity. My country also hopes that the progress achieved on the Palestinian-Israeli track will lead to the activation of the Syrian-Israeli and the Lebanese-Israeli tracks. Lack of progress on those two tracks is a negative signal that does not serve the interests of a just and comprehensive peace. If such peace is to be achieved, we believe that the negotiators on all sides have to put behind them all the residual suspicions and political negativism of the past, free their political will and look at the present with a futuristic vision of a world that no longer knows geographical boundaries thanks to the technological progress we now witness in every aspect of life.

In Iraq, the Iraqi Government has yet to respond to all the requirements of the relevant Security Council resolutions so as to allow the lifting of the embargo imposed by the United Nations on Iraq. We, in common with others, were greatly surprised at the serious, important information disclosed recently by the Iraqi Government regarding its programme of weapons of mass destruction. Regardless of the reasons that led Iraq not to disclose these programmes in the past, the confidence of the international community in Iraq has been dealt a severe blow because Iraq had concealed this information in spite of the requests from the Special Commission. In the light of these new developments, which necessitate the continuation of the work of the Special Commission for a long time to come, my country appeals to the international community to double its efforts towards mitigating the suffering of the brotherly people of Iraq. By the same token, Iraq is required, now more than ever before, to reconsider its rejection of Security Council resolution 986 (1995), which, in our view, provides Iraq with a good opportunity to reduce some of the suffering of the brotherly people of Iraq.

We call on Iraq once again seriously to provide all the information and means still in its possession to the Special Commission. We hope that Iraq's compliance and cooperation in this matter will give the United Nations access to the crucial information regarding the Iraqi programmes on weapons of mass destruction and pave the way towards the eventual lifting of the embargo from which the Iraqi people have endured record suffering over the past five years.

In the context of Iraq's commitment to Security Council resolutions, in particular resolution 686 (1991), we call on the Iraqi Government to cooperate further with the tripartite Committee that deals with the question of Kuwaiti detainees and the expatriates of other countries detained in Iraq, and to provide the said committee with detailed information on those detainees. Any progress made in this direction will be viewed as a demonstration of the good intentions of Iraq and its desire to cooperate with other States.

In Somalia, despite the persistent efforts of the United Nations and other regional organizations, the situation in that country gives no cause for optimism due to the total disregard some Somali leaderships show towards the interests of the brotherly people of Somalia.

In Afghanistan, although the United Nations has deployed and continues to deploy special efforts to restore peace to this war-ravaged country, there is no abatement of the hostilities and bloodshed caused by the strife of the different factions in that country. On the other hand, we view with optimism the progress achieved in the peace processes undertaken by the United Nations in Angola, Mozambique, and Liberia, and call upon the international community to deploy all possible efforts towards the mitigation of the suffering of the people of Rwanda who continue to be in the grip of ethnic and political conflicts between the warring factions in their country.

In the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the United Nations and the commendable efforts of its peace-keeping forces to halt the bloodshed in this fledgling republic in the heart of Europe, the insurrection of the Bosnian Serbs and their continued defiance of the international community have resulted in frustrating all those concerted efforts. The recent events in Krajina and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air raids on Serbian positions have restored a certain degree of balance between Bosnia and the Serbs who seem to understand nothing but the logic of force. This has shown the validity of the logical call to enable the Government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to exercise its legitimate right to self-defence.

In this connection, obviously, the Agreement of Principle signed under the supervision of the Contract Group at Geneva on 3 September 1995 by the Foreign Ministers of the Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and the former Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) constitutes a significant step towards peace. However, it is the duty of the international community to exert great efforts to overcome the difficulties facing the United Nations and to ensure that the principles agreed on are translated into lasting peace in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There is no doubt that such regional issues face the United Nations with a real challenge and pose serious threats to international peace and security. In addition, they have created human tragedies as a result of such atrocities as "ethnic cleansing" and the horrors of famine and mass killings, not to mention the heavy financial burden they have put on the resources of the world economy and on the people who have fallen victim to the atrocities. In the light of all this, how can the United Nations face up to all these responsibilities at a time when its ability to deploy efforts is receding because of the over-bureaucratisation of its various organs and failure by many Member States to honour their financial obligations? The situation is complex, but it is one that can be dealt with by restructuring United Nations organs in a more cost-effective manner so that the goals set may be achieved over the short-, medium- and long-term in consonance with basic objectives so that the Organization may enter the coming century equipped with firm instructions to make international peace and security the basic underpinnings of social and economic development.

With regard to the Security Council, my country feels that while preserving the tasks entrusted to it, we must also find an effective mechanism to enable the General Assembly to make an effective contribution in dealing with crucial international issues so that all Member States may participate in implementing United Nations resolutions and programmes in line with the provisions of the Charter, in the interests of international peace and security as well as economic and social development. Proceeding from this, my delegation calls upon the international community to support the efforts of the United Nations as the principal body entrusted with addressing various crucial questions throughout the world. Those are our policies at all levels. At the regional level, my country seeks to build bridges of dialogue and cooperation between all countries in the belief that this serves the interests of international peace and security. We also seek to encourage and support all regional and international groupings in the same spirit and with the same goals in view. At the national level, my country deeply believes that the maintenance of regional and international peace provides the most important means of implementing our national economic and social plans. With God's will, we have managed to settle with our neighbours the problems regarding our borders, which has afforded us a golden opportunity to channel our national capabilities towards the implementation of our ambitious national economic and social programmes.

Benefiting from the past wealth of economic experience and in pursuit of the economic objective Oman charted 25 years ago, my Government, with the assistance of such international bodies as the World Bank and other economic experts, organized a conference on the future perspectives of the Omani economy by the year 2020, which was held at Muscat, the capital, on 3 and 4 June 1995. With the participation of a broad segment of the public and private sectors of Omani society and a select number of international organizations and world economic figures, that conference laid out the basic lines of the Omani strategy for future Omani development, among which are the development of human resources, the promotion of women's participation therein, the development of the private sector so that it may become the driving force of the national economy, the encouragement of economic diversity, the encouragement of a suitable economic balance between the economy of Oman and the rest of the world and the conservation of the environment and its exploitation for peaceful purposes. My Government's peaceful endeavour to implement those strategies represents the best means by which my country will enter the next century on a solid basis, that would enable the Omani people to expand their economic resources and benefit from the technological progress we feel will govern the world economy and all its means of production and marketing.

This option, with regard to the means of national development, will surely serve the cause of peace and security. God willing, we look forward to a future filled with promise for our future generations.