BOLIVIA
STATEMENT BY
H. E. Fernado Messmer Trigo
Viceminister of Foreign Affairs and Workship of Bolivia
Head of the
Delegation of Bolivia at
the Fifty-Fifth Session of the
United Nations General Assembly
September
20, 2000
New
York
Mr. President:
I
have been instructed by the Government of Bolivia to convey my sincerest
Special
thanks must also go to Secretary General Kofi Annan for his document-report in
the preparation of the Millennium Summit, the political implications of which
has given us an opportunity to reflect upon and take up specific subjects
concerning the United Nations in its 55 years of existence.
In
addition, we must congratulate ourselves for the recent admission of Tuvalu, as
a new full member of our Organization.
Mr.
President:
The
recent Millennium Summit has confirmed recognition by the International
Community of the importance, meaning, and perspectives of the United Nations Organization. Likewise it has made
evident the urgency of adapting and
conforming the United Nations to the new reality in which we live, quite
different, to be sure, from the situation and circumstances that prevailed when
our Organization came into being.
Today,
the concerns of peoples and governments are different. Poverty,
underdevelopment, and the heightened inequalities are factors that determine
new divisions which threaten to erupt in violence. These are conditions that
must be corrected because they are the source of present and future conflicts
which, if allowed to persist, could place the world's economic and political
stability in serious jeopardy; international peace and security, it goes without
saying.
Our
Organization needs to be strengthened if it is
to successfully channel the expectations and opportunities of globalization
while reserving, at the same time, the capability of controlling and preventing
the dangers implicit, especially for the more vulnerable economies now
threatened by new forms of exclusion.
The
United Nations must be renewed so that it may continue being an effective
instrument for dialogue that calls for the building of a world in which greater
security and solidarity prevail.
Consequently, we must redefine the
Organization's priorities in a way that will be conducive to clear-sighted
and effective action. This signifies substantial reform of the system's economic
and financial organs, modernization of the General Assembly's modus operandi,
the Security Council's recommendation to the new realities, and other equally important tasks,
such as ensuring the funds for our institution, obtaining financing for development
and peace-keeping operations, modifying the scale of contributions, hewing
to the basic principle of the country’s ability to pay.
Only a few days ago at the Millennium Summit, the
President of Bolivia, Hugo Banzer Suarez referred to the close relation between
freedom and poverty and between poverty and violence, issuing a call for the
fight against poverty to be waged in accordance with the principle of shared
responsibility, with the adoption of truly democratic obligations in order to
mitigate present inequalities which threaten to become more intense.
It is unfair in an open economy for markets to be closed
and discriminatory measures to be applied with protectionist intent. It is
also imperative that countries with small-scale economies be favored through
greater capital input and debt-relief programmes.
Science and technology must constitute a heritage
for human development. Scientific and technological knowledge must not widen
already existing gaps and divisions.
At the historic meeting of South American Presidents,
recently held in Brasilia, the heads of state of the region stressed the importance
of access to the new information-and-knowledge age, opening the way for our
countries to strengthen a system of continuing education that ensures education
at all levels for the broadest sectors of society and permits access to knowledge
and information without restriction.
Mr. President:
Democracy, which basically seeks to organize the
life of mankind in society, is a vital concept, which changes and is updated at
the changing pace of the societies themselves; without impairing essential
values.
In the conviction that democracy must extend beyond
electoral ceremony, and in the understanding that sovereignty is vested in the
people and expressed through its representatives, the principle of agreement on
concerted political action has been declared in Bolivia as the basis of a
pluralistic and participatory democratic system.
In that context, the practice of ".National
Dialogue" was instituted during the administration of President Banzer, a
mechanism which seeks to establish a new relation of work and responsibility
shared between government institutions, the political system, and the
organizations of society. The establishment of important state policies was the
fruit of the first National Dialogue in 1997.
National Dialogue was put into practice again this
year in order to provide a new
Mr. President:
Shortly after taking office in August, 1997,
President Banzer assumed the responsibility for getting Bolivia out of the
drug-trafficking loop for good by implementing an integral policy that links
afternative development, eradication of illegal coca crops, confiscation,
prevention, and rehabilitation.
In spite of doubt as to the feasibility of this
decision, we can now declare that we will be fulfilling our obligation ahead of
time. In 1997, there were approximately 38.000 hectares of illegal coca in
Bolivia. Today, more than 80% of such illegal crops has been eradicated.
The concern now lies in the ability to sustain these
achievements. Conditions must be created which will, in the future, obviate
a return to the production of coca leaves as a consequence of the lack of
jobs and income. Our major efforts are aimed at alternative development, in
order that illegal coca income can be replaced by legal earnings from other
productive activities. If we do not obtain clear-cut, feasible responses,
we run the risk that those persons who cannot hope to subsist will fall into
the temptation of cultivating coca anew. That would constitute surrender to
the drug dealers. And this would signify a defeat not only for Bolivia but
for the world community.
What Bolivia needs, then, is support in two basic
areas. First, investment, for promoting economic growth in all sectors that
generate greater opportunity for jobs and, secondly, the opening of secure
markets for our exports.
Mr. President:
At previous Assemblies, Bolivia has aired its
historical, political, and economic arguments upon which it bases its
unavoidable need to recoup its maritime status which gave rise to its
independent existence.
It is with this purpose that Bolivia has been
encouraging direct dialogue with the Republic of Chile.
As a consequence of prior contacts, the Foreign
Ministers of Bolivia and Chile met in Portugal on February 22 of this year
where an agreement was reached to prepare a working program to be formalized in
the subsequent stages of dialogue, which shall incorporate, without exclusion
of any kind, the essential points of a bilateral relation, and seek to surmount
the differences that have stood in the way of full integration between Bolivia
and Chile, the main stumbling block having been, without question, Bolivia's
unresolved maritime demand.
In a significant advance, on the occasion of the
Meeting of Presidents of South America, held in Brasilia, the Chief Executives
of Bolivia and Chile, Hugo Banzer and Ricardo Lagos, reiterated the Willingness
of their governments to enter into dialogue on all topics of bilateral
relations, without exception, for the purpose of creating a climate of mutual
trust which will make possible the establishment of closer relations based on
the structure and positions maintained by the two countries.
The word community and, particularly, the American
region, follows with expectation the course of this diplomatic process and its
advances. The purpose of holding dialogue on all the topics, without exception,
implies a challenge to the imagination and puts political will to the test for
finally correcting an unjust situation that has been in force since 1879.
Furthermore, Latin America's capacity for settling its disputes in a fair,
peaceful, negotiated manner will be strengthened and, in this way, progress
will be made on the road to regional integration.
In that context, we propose that a program of
integrated development of western Bolivia and northern Chile be implemented. We
are also confident that Peru will participate in this program in order to
mobilize the resources and capabilities of the three regions. In this way, a
contribution will be made to the linkage of the Atlantic and Pacific basins.
The persistence of Bolivia's landlocked situation in
the heart of the continent is, without doubt, an obstacle for the creation of a
major opening to thoroughgoing understanding and dialogue in the South American
region and, besides, minimizes the effectiveness of integrationist aims being
carried out in the area.
Mr. President:
This
occasion provides a fitting opportunity to thank the Secretary General Kofi
Annan for his interest in the relations between Bolivia and Chile, which has
been brought to the attention of the authorities of the two countries. The
Secretary General has expressed his satisfaction with respect to the conversations
at the level of the Heads-of-State, Foreign Ministers, and other authorities
of Bolivia and Chile, in the terms expressed by the parties.
My country pledges utmost effort in support of
transmuting the desire, recently expressed by the Presidents of Bolivia and
Chile, into action that will enable us, Bolivians and Chileans alike, to
advance in the resolution of our differences, with a view to the future and in
a spirit of brotherhood.
Thank you.