STATEMENT
BY
HONOURABLE
DR. I. S. G. MUDENGE
MINISTER
OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF
ZIMBABWE
AT THE
MILLENNIUM
ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS
NEW YORK,
21
SEPTEMBER, 2000
Mr. President,
I wish to congratulate you on your
election to the presidency of this historic session of the General Assembly.
May I also take this opportunity to congratulate your predecessor, my dear
brother and colleague, the Foreign Minister of Namibia, on a job well done.
Zimbabwe joins other Members of
this Assembly in welcoming the admission of Tuvalu as the 189th Member State of
the United Nations.
Since a Millennium Assembly can
come only once in a lifetime, it is my singular honour and pleasure to address
this assembly.
The 20th century was, probably,
the most eventful in the history and experience of Zimbabwe. As we enter the
21St century and the new millennium, the people of Zimbabwe, in a very symbolic
and yet historic way, find themselves concluding painful chapters of their
experience, whose closure is critical to the laying of a foundation for a
better future.
Mr. President,
Structural inequalities are a
fundamental reality of Africa's colonial past, which many countries like my own
are grappling with to this day. Seventy per cent of Zimbabwe's best arable land
is still controlled by about 4 500 settlers and their descendents. This is in a
country of nearly 13 million people. It is a historical fact that the colonial
regime forcefully robbed us of this land without paying us any compensation. As
I speak, the Government of Zimbabwe is in the process of taking back 5 of the
12 million hectares of our prime land to settle landless peasants.
Zimbabwe's land reform programme
is meant not only to correct the wrongs wrought on our society by colonialism,
but also to restore our people's heritage and basic means of subsistence and
economic participation. In this endeavour, we have received neither the
cooperation of those sectors of our society to whom colonialism bequeathed
special privileges, nor the acknowledgement or support of former colonisers who
willed those privileges. In pursuit of their policies, those powerful interests
have employed their financial might, as well as their control of the media to
not only choke our economy, but also demonize us before the world.
Mr. President, we cannot, in one
breath, pay lip service to human rights, equality and poverty eradication
and, in the next, defend inequality, which condemns the majority to a life
in squalor. We invite all our partners to see through the veil of the negative
and racist media blitz, acquaint themselves with our people's real need for
justice, restoration and agrarian reform, and help us remove the barriers
that constrain poor people's ability to benefit from their economy, and to
contribute to its growth
Mr. President,
Our determination to undertake
land reform in Zimbabwe is one of the "crimes" cited in the so-called
"Zimbabwe Democracy Act 2000," which was passed by the United States
Senate in June this year, and is before Congress as I speak. The Bill proposes
to prescribe the outcome of our land reform exercise, and seeks to virtually
usurp the authority of the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
Most ironically, Mr. President,
the so-called "Democracy Act" proposes to authorize the investment of
around Z$300 million (three hundred million Zimbabwean dollars) of US funds in
the breeding of opposition in Zimbabwe. That amount, which is exclusively for
opposition parties, is more than four times the Z$70 million distributed by the
Zimbabwean fiscus among all political parties that have a stipulated threshold
representation in parliament. Are we expected to just stand idly by and watch
haplessly as our destiny is determined from outside our country? Where, I ask,
is our self determination and our sovereignty, for which so much blood and
lives were sacrificed by our people?
The Bill seeks to hurt Zimbabwe's
fortunes even further by issuing US Directors at the IMF and the World Bank
with standing directives to vote against Zimbabwe at every opportunity. This
means that even if Zimbabwe met all macroeconomic requirements and exercised
the requisite fiscal discipline, it would still be disqualified in its quest
for assistance from the Bretton woods institutions on the basis of political
considerations that are totally extraneous to the stipulated technical
criteria. Mr. President, just what are the rules of the game, and to whom are
these international financial institutions accountable? Do we need any further
justification for the resounding call for a new international financial
architecture? For while the current international financial architecture is
subservient to the interests of the rich and strong, even to the satisfaction
of their last extraterritorial exploit, it remains forever insensitive to the
survival needs of the small, the weak and the poor.
Mr. President,
Zimbabwe's involvement in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to help prevent mayhem, bloodshed and
the overthrow of a legitimate government there is another "crime"
cited in the "Zimbabwe Democracy Act 2000." At the invitation of the
Government of the DRC, Zimbabwe, together with other SADC allies, sent troops
to the DRC to help fend off an invasion by two of that country's neighbours.
The responsive intervention of the SADC allies effectively contained the
situation and established the relative calm and stability prevailing in the DRC
today. It also paved the way for the peace process that culminated in the
signing last year of the Lusaka Cease-fire Agreement which, all involved agree,
offers the best hope for establishing and maintaining peace in the region.
What does Zimbabwe get in return for her sacrifices in
upholding the principles of the UN Charter? Sanctions and threats of more
sanctions are the response. For helping to create the very conditions that
enabled the UN to set foot in the DRC, Zimbabwe is today questioned, tried and
sentenced to pariah status. Some of the proponents of the "Zimbabwe
Democracy Act 2000" have demanded that Zimbabwe withdraw her troops from
the DRC, before they can even consider withdrawing that Bill.
Are we being punished for creating conditions that enabled
UN and other humanitarian agencies to deliver assistance to Congolese
communities? Are we being villified for enabling thousands of Congolese
children to get polio vaccination and other types of life-saving immunization?
Mr. President, after offering our partnership in the quest for peace and human
well-being, we expect the international community to respond accordingly and cooperate
with us.
Instead of punishing those who invaded the DRC, instead of
censuring those who are violating the national sovereignty and territorial
integrity of the DRC in blatant desecration of cardinal principles of the UN
Charter, instead of questioning those who are already in contempt of Security
Council orders to withdraw immediately from the DRC, some members of the
international community have chosen rather to victimize Zimbabwe, whose troops
are in the DRC at the invitation of the government of that country. Mr.
President, exactly what outcome does the international community wish to see in
the DRC?
Mr. President,
I wish to reiterate, and categorically so, that Zimbabwe is
committed to the Lusaka Cease-fire Agreement, and to Security Council
resolutions adopted on this question. In this regard, Zimbabwe is ready to
immediately withdraw its troops from
the DRC, under the Lusaka
Cease-fire Agreement, as soon as the United Nations deploys peacekeepers in
that country. We therefore urge the Secretary-General to deploy the observer
mission already authorized by the Security Council as part of phase two
deployment, so that we can move to phase three for the deployment of the actual
peacekeepers.
Like their neighbours in the DRC, the peace-loving people of
Angola are victims of an imposed war, which is fomented by greed rather than
grievance. While the crisis is far from resolved, we are mollified by the
position taken by the Security Council, through the Angola sanctions committee,
to ensure the effective application of the embargo against UNITA. We support
the Secretary-Generál's stance on "naming and shaming" the violators
of sanctions as a way óf preventing the opportunism and greed that fan conflicts.
This was the position adopted by the OAU at its last summit in Lome, Togo.
In both the DRC and Angola, we challenge the United Nations, particularly
the Security Council, to come to the aid and defense of the innocent victims
of war, protect their natural heritage and natural resources from pillage,
and safeguard their territorial integrity and national sovereignty
Mr. President,
With regard to the Lockerbie Affair, we still await the
Security Council's comprehensive and final response to Libya's full compliance
with Council resolutions. It was the Council's own commitment that such a
conclusive step would be taken 90 days after Libya's full compliance. In the
trial itself, at the Hague, we call for transparency and fairness to avoid
miscarriage of justice.
The international community must never lose track of the
long-drawn dialogue on the peace process in the Middle East, particularly in
Palestine. We call for good faith and consistency in the negotiations until the
brotherly Palestinian people attain statehood with national sovereignty and
territorial integrity. In Western Sahara, the international community owes it
to the Saharawi people to ensure the early holding of a free and fair
referendum to allow them the priceless opportunity
to determine their destiny.
Mr. President,
On the global economic front, the last decade of the 20t'
century witnessed tremendous progress in some parts of the world but also saw
stagnation and setbacks even in some countries that had previously experienced
fast economic growth. Periods of economic and financial crisis lead to
retrenchment, wherein concern for people had given way to concern for balancing
budgets and payments. These crises have underscored the importance of
understanding and strengthening the social underpinnings of development, to
ensure that peoples, their cultures, and societies are taken into account in
the process of development.
Mr. President,
Poverty amidst plenty is an affront to our common humanity.
At a time when the world has the wherewithal to attack poverty vigorously,
spectacular affluence and abject poverty are found side by side. In contrast to
its potential as the ultimate provider of new opportunities for growth and
development worldwide, globalization has been accompanied by widening income
disparities among, as well as within countries and regions. Its ill effects
have disproportionately victimized the most vulnerable and marginalized nations
and sections of society. Globalization is redefining the nature and role of
state and the governance of international bodies, subordinating democratic
political processes to unaccountable economic and financial actors and
institutions. Globalization is thus undermining the ability of governments to
serve as guarantors of the social, economic, political and cultural health of
our communities.
At the expense of our common goals and objectives for international
economic cooperation, we have surrendered to blind market forces in the faint
hope that somehow things will, as if by magic, turn out right. The consequences
of this impoverishing process are clearly visible in a number
of alarming trends, such as the takeover of national assets by transnational
corporations in the name of public enterprise privatization and commercialization.
As a result, Africa enters the new century literally hanging on the vagaries
of global markets, accounting for only 1 percent of global GDP and about 2
percent of world trade.
Mr. President,
Geographically, Africa is probably
the world's most fragmented region. The continent is demarcated by about 165
borders into 53 countries - 22 with less than 5 million people, 11 with less
than 1 million. This fragmentation imposes real constraints on development and,
without economic integration, Africa will fall further behind the global
frontier. We, therefore, call upon the international community to support our
efforts at regional integration, as we promote regional public goods, including
regional infrastructure (such as roads, railways, ports, and power-pooling
systems), infectious disease control, centres of excellence for training,
regional markets and trade, and agricultural research and early warning systems
for drought.
Mr. President,
Despite talk of the "global
village," it is apparent that Africa's lonely days are not yet over. For we
still have cause and occasion to feel marginalized in so many respects. We know
what it is like to give passage to emergency aircraft and sea vessels that
criss-cross our airspace and waterways to attend to emerging crises in distant
places, whilst our own crises simmer on and explode in our faces. Our cease-fire
agreements and truces are tested beyond limit, whilst the United Nations stands
aloof unimpressed, yet urgent interventions are deployed to flashpoints in
other regions, even without cease-fire guarantees. Hesitant and half-spirited
interventions by the Security Council in several African conflicts have neither
done the job nor enhanced the credibility of the United Nations. As the United
Nations organ uniquely mandated to maintain international peace and security,
the Security Council should make itself equally attentive to the needs of the
world's family of nations, including in cooperation with regional arrangements
everywhere, as provided for in Chapter VIII of the UN Charter. Or is it true that
so long as the Security Council remains unreformed it shall always fail to
respond adequately to the interests of all the members of the UN?
Mr. President,
As we review the progress of
nations and design the role of the United Nations in the 21st century, we need to remind ourselves that
" we the peoples of the world" constitute the real wealth of the
brotherhood of nations. The thrust of the UN agenda and, indeed, of development
is, therefore, to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long,
healthy, peaceful and creative lives. I wish to put it to this Millennium
Assembly that the role of the United Nations in the 21st century is to champion
the agenda of the world's weak, those marginalized and impoverished by
globalization, those currently circumscribed to the margins of policy and
decision-making in the international economic and socio-political system. In
brief, it is to protect the weak and manage the strong.