UGANDA

Mr. President,

I bring to you and all member states of the United Nations fraternal greetings and best wishes for the new Millennium from the Government and People of Uganda. I also bring to you Mr. President, and through you to the 55^th Session, the personal best wishes of the President of the Republic of Uganda, His Excellency Mr. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

I should like, at the outset, to congratulate you on your well‑deserved and unanimous election to preside over this session of the General Assembly which follows the footsteps of the historic and highly successful Millennium Summit. Your predecessor, the distinguished Minister of Foreign Affairs of Namibia, deserves our heartfelt thanks for presiding over so many special and regular sessions during this tenure as President of the General Assembly.

May I also avail myself of this opportunity to pay a very special tribute to our illustrious Secretary‑General, His Excellency Mr Kofi Annan, for the exemplary work he has continued to perform on behalf of the Organization and the peoples of the world. The Secretary‑General deserves special recognition by the United Nations family for his tireless efforts geared to address the numerous challenges which face the United Nations at the dawn of the new era.

Uganda warmly welcomes the admission of Tuvalu as the 189^th member state of the United Nations.

Mr President,

For Uganda events in Africa and, in particular, instability in the Great Lakes region continue to be of the utmost concern and it is for this reason that I crave your indulgence if I devote a substantial portion of my statement to those problems and challenges which confront us in the Great Lakes Region.

Mr President,

As the international community is fully aware, the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo poses a major threat to the stability of the Great Lakes Region and, therefore, to the entire African continent. That conflict has its origins in the massive violation of the human and democratic . rights of the peoples of the region during the long reign of dictators in a number of countries in the region. Historical evidence suggests that when people are oppressed, sooner or later they will rise and take up arms against their oppressors. This is precisely what we are witnessing in the Great Lakes region.

During the 1980s and 1990s, a number of dictatorships were overthrown in spite of their determined attempts to save their regimes by resorting to the most ruthless methods of survival, namely genocide. This despicable weapon was not only used in Rwanda in 1994, but has also been used to a lesser extent in Uganda, Burundi, former Zaire and the Sudan. The instability which we are witnessing today is thus caused by the continuing struggle of the peoples of the region to reclaim their democratic and human rights.

In Uganda, the people's struggle brought about a fundamental change in 1986 and this resulted in the establishment of democracy, stability, and economic progress which the people of Uganda have enjoyed over the past fourteen years. Unfortunately, the instability and civil wars taking place in neighbouring countries have continued to impact negatively on our attempt to consolidate the results of our victory. This has been the case, especially when the remnants of our former oppressors have attempted to form alliances with dictatorial regimes in some neighbouring countries or take advantage of the power vacuum existing in such countries to establish bases from which to launch desperate attacks on Uganda.

As the Government of Uganda has stated before, at various times it cooperated with a number of progressive forces in the region to help the people of Congo to free themselves from one of the longest and most oppressive dictatorships the African continent has ever seen ‑ I am referring to the dictatorship of the late Mobutu Sese Seko. In helping the people of Congo, we were also hoping to free ourselves from the menace of destabilization which had become the official policy of the late Mobutu. That is why Ugandan troops found themselves in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997.

When a new regime came to power in the DRC, we signed a protocol of cooperation under which Ugandan and Congolese security forces would cooperate to contain the menace caused by armed groups organised by the

remnants of Uganda's former dictators who were operating from Congolese territory. Unfortunately, within a very short period, the new regime in the DRC chose to turn its back on its former allies and form an alliance with the very people who posed a threat to our security. Not only did the regime turn its back against its external allies, it also turned its back on its internal allies, thus provoking a fresh civil war in the country within a year. The result was that a number of African countries which had been allies in the struggle against the Mobutu dictatorship now found themselves sucked into the conflict.

Fortunately, these countries soon saw the folly of armed confrontation and chose to end the conflict through negotiations. The result was the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement. This agreement was a major breakthrough in the attempt to establish genuine peace to the region because it addressed the problems of establishing a democratic and accountable government in the Congo and of catering for the legitimate security concerns of neighbouring countries. The agreement still offers the best hope of establishing and maintaining peace in the region. For this reason Uganda has worked hard to have this agreement implemented. On 8^th April this year, Uganda hosted an important meeting of the Political Committee which was established under this agreement. At this meeting, a disengagement plan was adopted under which all the fighting forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo would disengage under the supervision of the United Nations Observer Mission (MONUC).

Unfortunately, it has not been possible to effect the disengagement of forces in accordance with the stipulated calendar because one of the signatories namely, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has done everything possible to block the implementation of this disengagement plan as well as several aspects of the Lusaka Agreement. On 14^th August this year an important summit of nine countries in the region plus leaders of all rebel groups fighting against the government of the DRC took place in Lusaka to identify the obstacles to the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement. Their conclusion was that the government of the DRC was largely to blame for the current impasse. The principal ways in which the Congolese government has prevented the implementation of the ceasefire

are:

‑ Refusal to participate in the National Dialogue

‑ Rejection of a distinguished and eminent facilitator who was agreed

upon as a result of consultations and by consensus.

‑ Restriction to the freedom of movement of MONUC peace observers

‑ Refusal to cooperate with the Joint Military Commission

‑ Continued violations of the Ceasefire

The leaders of the region have expressed their strong concern at the obstructions created by the DRC to the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement. If the DRC does not heed the calls of the regional leaders, there is a serious risk that the region could once again be embroiled in another large scale war. We, therefore, appeal to the DRC government to reconsider its position and choose the path of dialogue both with its internal and external opponents and abandon the path of military confrontation.

Uganda wishes to re‑affirm its full commitment to the Lusaka Ceasfire Agreement which offers the best opportunity to bring this conflict to an end so that the region can embark on the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase. Uganda pledges its full support for all efforts aimed at ending the conflict and appeals to the international community to give moral and material backing to the Lusaka peace process.

Mr President,

Uganda believes that the problems of Burundi are essentially political and internal. As the Chairman of the regional peace initiative on Burundi, President Museveni of Uganda has worked tirelessly in resolving the problems of Burundi. In this capacity he has convened and chaired many regional summits on Burundi. We believe that a formula that creates democracy with security for all the people of Burundi is possible.

We wish to place on record our appreciation to the facilitator of the Burundi peace process, former President Nelson Mandela and his predecessor the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere for their untiring efforts in working towards a peaceful solution to the Burundi problem.

Uganda welcomes the agreement reached on 28^th August, 2000 in Arusha by the parties to the Burundi peace process. We, however, regret that a few of the parties did not sign the Agreement. Uganda would like to appeal to them to sign the Agreement as soon as possible for the sake of the future of the people of Burundi and the Great Lakes region. We call upon the United Nations and the international community to provide the necessary support and resources so that the Agreement can be successfully implemented.

Mr President,

Uganda is committed to the goal of general and complete disarmament endorsed by the United Nations at the first Special Session on Disarmament in 1978. It is against this background that we note, with concern, the failure of the Disarmament Commission to reach an agreement on the convening of the fourth Special Session devoted to Disarmament. The holding of this Conference is critical for addressing important issues related to disarmament, considering the fact that the Conference on Disarmament has failed to agree on an agenda for two years in a row and the indefinite extension of the nuclear Non‑proliferation Treaty. Uganda also attaches great importance to the Ottawa Treaty on anti‑personnel land mines. We supported last year the resolution on illicit trafficking in small arms because the proliferation and use of small arms and light weapons remains a major problem in our region. Uganda participated actively in regional initiatives on this matter which resulted in the adoption of the Nairobi Declaration. We look forward to the international conference on the problem of small arms in all its aspects scheduled to take place in July 2001.

Mr President,

The world has entered the 21^st Century with globalisation as the most pervasive economic force to reckon with. However, the expected benefits accruing from the process are not guaranteed for all countries. For some, it has opened opportunities for rapid growth and development through increased trade liberalisation and advancement in technology. While for others, the process has led to increasing income disparity and marginilisation in the global economy. The biggest challenge facing us at the dawn of this century is, therefore, to muster the necessary political will to act together and create an enabling environment for the successful integration of the poorer countries into the global economy. Uganda is of the view that the issue of globalisation can and should be seriously addressed multilaterally by the United Nations and by other international organisations. We are confident that the establishment of a rule‑based multilateral trading system, institutionalized in the WTO, will facilitate the integration of developing countries into the global trading system.

The challenge of ridding the world of the scourge of abject poverty deserves more attention now than ever before because as more of the world's population is now enjoying better living standards, the situation of many others in the developing countries, especially the least developed, is deteriorating rapidly. A larger percentage of the world's population lives on less than a dollar a day today than a decade ago. The Secretary‑General's report reveals that people living in sub‑saharan Africa are almost as poor today as they were twenty years ago. This is an extremely sad commentary on the state of past development cooperation. Urgent measures should be undertaken to arrest this deterioration of the living conditions of people in developing countries.

In Uganda, we believe that significant reduction in poverty can be achieved through sustained and broad‑based income growth. In most developing countries this can be effectively done through modernization of the agricultural sector which dominates the economy and employs the majority of the population. That is why in the last two years, we have been working to develop a comprehensive set of policies for the modernization of agriculture as part of the Government's broader strategy for poverty eradication. Uganda welcomes and fully endorses the Secretary‑General's recommendations on specific actions that need to be taken both nationally and at the international level to reduce the number of people living in extreme poverty.

The last decade has witnessed unabated deterioration in the socio‑economic conditions of the Least Developed Countries. A quick review of progress in the implementation of the Programme of Action for the LDCs for the 1990s will show that there have been more setbacks than progress. While the LDCs have been undertaking far‑reaching and painful measures of adjustment and reforms, the actions by the international community, on the other hand, have fallen far short of the commitments to provide adequate external support to complement the efforts of LDCs. As a result, the LDCs continued to suffer from the lack of external resources for development due to steady decline in the flow of Official Development Assistance to them. While it is true that Foreign Direct Investment flows have increased significantly in the last decade, the LDCs are not yet well equipped to attract such investments. High levels of external debt have negatively affected the economies of the LDCs and despite decades of liberalization most industrialized countries still maintain protectionist measures in their markets especially for agricultural products and textiles ‑ the two sectors in which developing countries have a recognized comparative advantage. All these have had a combined effect of stunting further the economic and social prospects of LDCs.

In this regard, Uganda strongly supports the Secretary‑General in urging the industrialized countries to consider granting duty‑free and quota‑free access for the exports of the LDCs as a demonstration of their commitment which they should readily endorse at the third United Nations Conference for Least Developed Countries in March 2001. My delegation also urges the General Assembly to adopt the recommendations of the 10^th Session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development contained in the Bangkok Consensus and the Plan of Action for the LDCs. While we call upon the industrialized countries to live up to their promise in the context of the agreement reached in 1999 at the Cologne G8 Summit, we 'also call for stronger support to be given to the relevant UN bodies like UNCTAD to enable implementation of their mandates to assist the LDCs.

With specific reference to the African continent where 33 of the 48 Least Developed Countries are found, the socio‑economic situation is much more precarious despite many efforts made by African countries individually and collectively to lay solid foundations for development. The difficulty in achieving positive results in Africa's development has been further complicated by the severity of Africa's AIDS crisis. We call upon the international community to lend concrete support to Africa's own efforts to realize the objective of the African Renaissance, which aims to place the continent at the forefront of human development and progress. The international community should support the efforts of African countries by fulfilling commitments made in the context of the UN New Agenda for the Development of Africa. These commitments include the reduction of African debt, adequate resource flows, provision of greater market access and assistance in diversification and capacity building. In this connection,

Uganda supports the proposals made by the Secretary‑General in his report to this session of the General Assembly.

Mr President,

I would like to reiterate Uganda Government's position to uphold the values and principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. I pledge Government's continued adherence to the International Human Rights Conventions and norms.

In the pursuit of an international human rights regime, it is imperative to establish institutions and mechanisms for this purpose. Uganda will continue to support and work towards the establishment of a strong International Criminal Court. Of particular concern to us is the deterrence and punishment of the crime of genocide which has remained prevalent in our region.

At the national level, in a bid to implement the fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution, Ugandans voted on 29^th June, 2000 in a referendum for a political system of their choice. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the international community for their support towards the success of the referendum exercise. I am happy to report that the referendum was declared free and fair by both local and international observers.

In our struggle to end internal conflict, Parliament enacted the Amnesty Act 2000. In accordance with the Act, an Amnesty Commission has now been established and is operational. The mandate of the Commission is to monitor programmes of demobilization, reintegration and resettlement of returnees, coordinate a programme of sensitization of the general public on the Amnesty Law, consider and promote appropriate reconciliation mechanisms in the affected areas and promote dialogue and reconciliation in the spirit of the Amnesty Act. There is a programme of reintegration into society which involves acquisition of skills and a fund to promote self-employment. It is our hope that this process will bring to an end internal conflict and all human rights violations associated with conflict situations.

Mr President,

In closing, Uganda believes that as we enter the new century the United Nations should be reformed, equipped and provided with the necessary resources to implement fully, effectively and efficiently the mandates the General Assembly and other principal organs of the Organization have entrusted to it. In this connection, Uganda hopes that the long drawn‑out negotiations on the reform of the Security Council will be finalized at the current session of the Assembly.

I thank you Mr President.