unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/12/89)
UN ASSEMBLY SESSION -- TAKE 3 Posting Date: 10/09/89 Copyright UNITEX Communications, 1989 UNITEX Network, USA ISSN: 1043-7932 Continuing, Mr. SERRANO CALDERA (Nicaragua) said Central America was still living through the most serious crisis of its history -- a crisis rooted in poverty, underdevelopment and exploitation; the region's role as supplier of raw materials in conditions of exploitation and misery, as a banana enclave and zone of strategic and geopolitical interest, determined its destiny for many decades. Local oligarchies, he went on, allied to military establishments, served as instruments of merciless foreign exploitation. Crude and brutal military disctatorships were, for many decades, the dominant political system in almost all the countries of the region, he added. The Central American crisis had not only been politicl and military in nature, it was and continued to be economic and social as well. Therefore, he said, alongside political accords, all necessary support must be given to solve grave economic problems and even more critical social problems. Economic assistance for Central America must be given immediately, without waiting for the political problem to be resolved. He said the commitment assumed by the five Central American countries to have United Nations and Organization of American States' (OAS) observers verify the fairness of electoral processes, agreements on the demobilization of the counter-revolutionary forces, as well as their voluntary resettlement and repatriation, and the commitment not to attack other countries undoubtedly constituted the essential points of the regional peace process. In compliance with these accords, Nicaragua had invited the Secretaries- General of the United Nations and OAS to designate commissions in Nicaragua to verify the entire electoral process due to culminate 25 February 1990. Observers from the European Parliament, as well as ex-Presidents Jimmy Carter of the United States and Raul Alfonsin of Argentina, had been invited, he said, adding the hope that other Central American countries would proceed to invite the United Nations and OAS to observe their respective electoral processes. All countries, he said, must respect the sovereign character of this process, put a halt to any policies of electoral interference or manipulation, and immediately provide support to the economic effort required by this 58 6 October 1989 Current "so-called humanitarian aid" to the contras must cease, he said, inasmuch as it served as logistical support and prolonged the conflict. The CIAV should immediately establish the mechanism for administering those funds for purposes of demobilization and repatriation. Nicaragua supported United Nations-supervised free elections in Namibia; direct negotiations between Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO); and appealed to Iran and Iraq to reach a rapid, total and lasting solution to that conflict. He upheld the right of the Afghan people to free determination, supported the reunification of the Korean people and expressed support for the resolution adopted at the extraordinary Arab summit on Lebanon; supported the peace forces in Angola and hoped for a prompt resolution of the conflict, as well as efforts to obtain peace for Cambodia. Nicaragua also endorsed the negotiations between the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the Government of El Salvador; and supported the right of the Panamanian people to demand compliance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties on the dates agreed upon, as well as Panamanians' right to non-interference in their internal affairs. In the field of international law, Nicaragua and 14 other countries had presented at the Foreign Ministers' Conference held in Nicosia in September 1988, a draft resolution that had been approved unanimously, calling for a special ministerial-level meeting of the Movement of Non-Aligned Nations, with the objective of proclaming the last decade of this century and this millenium, the decade of peace and international law, he said. On international debt, he said there would be no peace and development until the problem of foreign debt was resolved on a global basis, by means of a restructuring of the system. Bilateral solutions were "partial and fictitious" because they left the underlying cause of the crisis intact. Ecological destruction must be halted, he said. Regarding environmental problems in Central America, the interest of Nicaragua and other countries of the region was reflected in the creation of the Central American commission on environment and development, which had had its first meeting only days ago. Drug trafficking must not be considered exclusively from the perspective of production, he said, but must inevitably take into account production, distribution, consumption and financial mechanisms. The drug problem was part of the same structural situation of relations between poor and highly developed countries, he added. * Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501) --- Patt Haring | United Nations | Did u read patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | misc.headlines.unitex patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | today? -=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-