YouSaid · the spoken record

Sanon

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS SANON

lines on the record: 39
first: 1992-09-24
most recent: 1993-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

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“This hope is like a guttering flame that must be kept burning; it is the image of our human condition, which we must constantly watch over. Only together can we succeed in doing so.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The spirit and perhaps even the nature of the Council must be changed. Clearly, we must begin the debate on the Security Council even if we are still bound by the terms of Article 108 of the Charter. The democratization of international relations is necessary." (A/47/PV.21, p. 87) It was in this political, economic, social and international environment that we heard the news on 13 September 1993 that two brothers, who had sprung from the same land but had until now refused to recognize each other, had met. Burkina Faso hails their mutual recognition. It is up to the Palestinian and Israeli leaders and peoples whether this is the useful and welcome prelude to their taking a long and complex path, accompanied by the international community, offering its best wishes and its good offices.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Democracy must be transformed into a means of action for achieving better things, for achieving more. Whether within States or between States, democracy is a plant that does not stop growing once it has started. Thus we come to the question of how a body with limits can function for and on behalf of all. For the moment, other considerations apply to the Security Council, because it is the direct inheritor of the balance of power that arose out of the Second World War. Forty-eight years later, the debate can certainly be opened. However, as Burkina Faso said during the forty-seventh session, "Clearly, the role and composition of the Security Council must be reviewed. But we fear that the discussion might be limited to merely expanding a club whose members would continue to view their status as a privilege, not a weighty responsibility.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In this respect, at the last summit meeting of the Organization of African Unity, in Cairo in June 1993, Africa set up a conflict prevention, management and settlement mechanism. The third problem arises from the Organization’s structural inadequacy to respond to the nature of the problems it will encounter from now on. Here again, though we need imagination to open up new approaches and apply fresh solutions to old and new problems, we must not lose sight of the fact that everyone must participate in the proposed solutions. The fourth problem stems from the notion of democracy. It has been repeatedly proclaimed to be a cureall, but it cannot remain just a battle standard that we wave in front of the new troops who have just been won over to the cause.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“However, the United Nations is in a worrying state because its finances are in a bad way, and that is because some of the largest contributors have not fulfilled their obligations. It is therefore difficult to talk about reforming, restructuring and revitalizing the Organization when the primary task has not been accomplished. This is the first problem, because it is the most urgent. The second problem has to do with the chaotic situation in the world. This situation is giving rise to peace-keeping operations, and their frequency and diversity have had an effect - and in future will have an even greater effect - on the functioning of the Organization. We approve of the Secretary-General’s pointing to preventive diplomacy as one of the solutions.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“From 8 to 13 February this year Burkina Faso held a series of national seminars on drugs, in which we reaffirmed the need to provide help and support for the most disadvantaged countries in order to curb this threat. We have deadlines in 1994 and 1995, and must prepare with hard work and dedication to confront then the problems of population at the Cairo World Conference; to promote women’s rights at the conference in Beijing; and, in Copenhagen, to focus on and respond to the need for social development. The problems I have enumerated require constant cooperation from everybody. As we leave the cold war behind, we have no better instrument for cooperation than 36 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session the United Nations.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“One of the great truths brought out and accepted at the World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna, is that there is a right to development. We cannot talk about human rights if elementary human rights - the most elementary human rights - are compromised by economic, financial and trade policies and strategies to which some people fall victim. To commit oneself to human rights nowadays is to commit oneself to changing the world everywhere and to accepting in every individual the person that we want to be and to defend. It is humankind as a whole that we must defend, or nothing; any other approach means giving in to harmful and questionable divisions between people. In the same context, the twin scourges of AIDS and drug abuse must be fought on all fronts, using all available resources.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The preservation of the species and of the planet is threatened in two ways: the nuclear menace and the harm we are doing to the environment. Burkina Faso is participating actively in the work of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the elaboration of an international convention to combat desertification and of the Commission on Sustainable Development. It is interesting to note that the harm being done to the environment in the southern hemisphere comes more from the effort to survive than from the unbridled desire to consume at all costs. The relationship established between development and environment also establishes the relationship between respect for human rights and development.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations - the Uruguay Round - must be concluded as quickly as possible and must take into account the needs of the developing countries. Once again, it is the concept of security that has led to the monstrous stockpiles of weapons of destruction. Nuclear weapons are the crowning achievement of this march towards the abyss. To limit the risks, a Non-Proliferation Treaty was opened for signature, and almost all States have been invited to sign and ratify it. This is a praiseworthy initiative, but it is not enough. For the Non-Proliferation Treaty to have any meaning, in due course the nuclearweapon States must give them up, and we must see our planet totally and genuinely freed from the nuclear threat.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The global village is no longer just a slogan; it has become a living reality that at the same time affects the concept of security. New laws are surfacing everywhere in an effort to stem a new deluge, immigration. These measures are an illusion and will remain so long as people do not realize, or refuse to realize, that the root of the problem lies in the socio-economic inequalities that afflict the world. In addition, population growth will cause unbearable pressure if real development policies are not put in place now. The tragedy lies more in the concentration of resources for a minority than in their scarcity. A community that is aware of its shortcomings and blind spots can still heal itself if it has the will to find and to take the necessary medicine.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Structural adjustment programmes have been squeezing even harder a continent that has been relegated to the sidelines notwithstanding its resources and the sacrifices it has been making. The problems are known, and to rehearse them here now would sound like a litany and sterile repetition. The solutions, too, are known. In this respect, the New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s has yet to be implemented. A year after the Rio Conference on Environment and Development, the commitments and the promises made have still to take tangible form. However, the same minority continues to lay waste the planet’s natural resources, while poverty is increasing and putting down roots in regions where it used to occur only from time to time or was only a localized phenomenon.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The eruption of crises of ethnic, religious or other origin is continuing, while the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina goes on and on, in contempt of international law and of the Security Council. We must therefore welcome the fact that in Cambodia and in El Salvador the process set in train has led to a beginning of normalization, Forty-eighth session - 1 October l993 35 and we must encourage Kuwait and Iraq to abide by Security Council resolution 833 (1993). While in political terms the picture is mixed, in economic terms it is bleaker. The world economy is in recession. Weighed down by its debt, by the fall in raw material prices, by the deterioration in its terms of trade and by natural disasters, fluctuations in climate, desertification and drought, Africa is staggering from one calamity to the next.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In South Africa, acts of violence continue. Each week the macabre death toll is mounting as a result of attacks on public transportation. This is not a climate conducive to significant, indeed decisive, elections. However, the will for change which guides the majority of the protagonists in the tragedy that is apartheid in its death throes must prevail over all manner of extremism. In view of this, Burkina Faso hails the statement made by the President of the African National Congress, Mr. Nelson Mandela, before the Special Committee against Apartheid on 24 September 1993. As for Rwanda, Liberia and Western Sahara, Burkina Faso hopes the agreements achieved can indeed be implemented so that the people of these regions may at long last know peace.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The suffering of the Angolan people has been exacerbated, and this today is the part of the world where, more than anywhere else, people are dying as a result of civil war. Having learned from the experience of Angola, the Security Council has issued useful, indeed necessary, recommendations for Mozambique. RENAMO is somewhat slow in implementing these measures. We invite them to pursue the path of negotiations, to overcome the reluctance shown, and to move resolutely with the Government of Mozambique towards reconciliation and reconstruction. In Somalia, after an encouraging start, United Nations action is running into obstacles that are having an adverse effect on the very nature of the peace-keeping operation. We are still convinced that while firmness is necessary, dialogue and negotiation with all parties are equally necessary.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Rather, it emphasized the NorthSouth split; old wounds that are still open; internal contradictions within regions; and divisions among nations." (A/47/PV.21, p. 86) In Africa, prospects run from an anxious outlook in some cases to measured hope in others. In this connection, acting on his own convictions as well as on those of Burkina Faso as a whole as to the needed and indeed indispensable integration of our continent, President Blaise Compaore has become active in subregional mediation and is thus making our contribution to the realization of this grand design for Africa. In Angola, the process sponsored by the United Nations and the international community as a whole is now being torpedoed by UNITA and Mr. Jonas Savimbi, with their refusal to accept the outcome of the elections.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We look forward to their active participation in the work of the Assembly so that we might, together, strive to preserve the peace, bring development to our peoples and ensure justice among nations. May I also convey to the Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the most sincere congratulations and encouragement of the Government of Burkina Faso in respect of his tireless efforts day after day to safeguard peace throughout the world and also to revitalize the United Nations system. While the ideals enshrined in the United Nations Charter remain as valid as they were on the very first day, the international community continues to suffer the aftershocks of East-West confrontation. What I said at the forty-seventh session remains true: "The collapse of one of the two blocs did not solve the world’s problems.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Before I begin my statement, I should like to offer my condolences to the Government and people of India on the natural disaster that has just struck them. I should like to assure them, on behalf of the people of Burkina Faso, that we grieve most profoundly with them. I wish, at the outset, to congratulate Mr. Insanally on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its forty-eighth session and to wish him every success in the discharge of the important responsibilities thus made incumbent upon him. I should also like to pay a tribute to his predecessor, Mr. Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria, for the dedication with which he presided over the work of the Assembly at its fortyseventh session. I wish also to take advantage of this opportunity to welcome the new States that have joined our Organization.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“It will no longer be a question of some pitted against others but, rather, of fighting the only fight worth fighting: the fight for a humanity living at peace in a saved environment.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We can even talk about a central role for it, as a crucial junction where political, economic, social and environmental concerns can be expressed and actually dealt with. Hitherto regarded as a forum, the United Nations can now add to cooperation, deliberation and the ongoing discussion of the trio of peace, security and development its status as an unparalleled instrument at the service of joint action for the common good. Burkina Faso will follow and actively discuss the various reforms and restructuring being planned for the whole of the United Nations system, for it is our conviction that they afford the international community a unique opportunity to implement the concept of global partnership. It is only under those conditions that we will at last be able truly to implement the noble ideals of the Charter.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“In that connection the follow-up to the World Summit for Children is important, and I should like to take this opportunity to remind the international community that in November at Dakar, Senegal, an African regional meeting will be held, under the aegis of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), to examine and evaluate responses to the commitments undertaken at New York in 1990 and to assess the support that could be supplied by all the members of the international community. Those meetings are therefore based on the principle of our common membership in the human race and on solidarity. In 1995 the Organization will be 50 years old. The evolution in international relations has created an ever-greater role for the United Nations.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The revolution in communication, the spread of ideas, the untapped potential of techniques and technologies have turned our world into a global village. We cannot indefinitely guarantee the security of the haves, the well-fed, to the detriment of others without doing permanent damage to the dignity and integrity of others. That is why Burkina Faso believes that population questions are fundamental, and that is why we spoke out in favour of the convening of the world summit for social development. Nor can we approach the question of human rights and questions of population and development without including women, the mothers of the world. These future conferences will be fairly meaningless if they do not lead to commitments that will lead, in turn, to tangible, concrete and satisfactory results.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We have already said that no one is against human rights because those rights are inherent in man. A partial, piecemeal vision of human rights would doom mankind to exploitation and abandonment. The right to development, to food, to housing, to primary health care and to education: all these are part of human rights. To support that aspect without recognizing and accepting the basic nature of the rights of the individual would clearly be an imperfect approach to defining and solving the problem. Likewise, stressing the rights of the individual while confining oneself to defending them would be to refuse to see the world as it is today. Indeed, earlier I spoke of the indomitable nature of the peoples' aspirations to freedom, national identity and well-being.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The Earth Summit has made the link between environment and development indissoluble. We welcome the decision of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development to set up an intergovernmental negotiating committee to draw up an international convention in the struggle against desertification. Burkina Faso will participate actively in that process and could act as host to some of the committee's meetings. International events on the horizon include: the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993; the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994; the world summit for social development in 1995; and the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, also in 1995. What they have in common is their subject and their protagonist: man.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“As we said at the forty-sixth session, Burkina Faso is convinced that all our problems "can be solved only by dialogue and negotiation between developed and developing countries with a view to bringing about specific solutions through a multilateral approach to these problems". (A/46/PV.4. p. 56) That was our approach to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development the Earth Summit at Rio, and that was why we welcomed the framework Convention on climate change and the Convention on biodiversity. The establishment of a commission for sustainable development could define the framework for what we have come to call the new global partnership. But as we all know, the Rio summit will be meaningful only if it is followed by the needed commitments with respect to additional resources and technology transfers.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We hail the few industrialized countries that have honoured their commitment to contribute 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product as official development assistance. The international economic context is marked by increased monetary instability, slower economic growth, high unemployment and the relative failure of the Uruguay Round. But capital needs are first met among the industrialized countries before they turn to so-called transitional economies. Can we speak of competition for capital? Or must we say that Africa is simply waiting for a response that has not been forthcoming? The response we want to hear and to turn into reality is the economic integration of our continent South-South cooperation along with allowing us the latitude of choice.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Thus, we in Burkina Faso are working to obtain all the necessary support so that slippages will not call into question our political achievements, and particularly so that the structural-adjustment programme can lay the lasting foundations of genuine development and growth. The rewards of the tireless efforts by African countries have not been commensurate with the sacrifices we have made. The promises of the North remain promises, just as the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development has not been truly implemented, except by Africans themselves. A new page has been turned with the new programme for the 1990s, but that page remains blank.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Beset by natural disasters, conflicts and the effects of an international economic crisis, Africa still bears an external debt of more than $236.7 billion; it faces tariff and customs barriers erected by some of its economic partners; and it must deal with a high rate of population growth. To this we must add the obligatory adoption of structural adjustment programmes that will first cause pain before possibly doing some good. "Possibly" is the right word, since these adjustments are put in place in a context of economic uncertainty that jeopardizes the results for which we hope.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“There can be no true security or just and lasting peace while three quarters of mankind continues to live in destitution, wretchedness and ignorance. That is a fact that has been repeated in this Hall over the years by a majority of delegations. Today's world is a world in flux, where the old questions remain and new solutions are taking too long in coming. The North-South rift I mentioned before can be illustrated by figures, including the well-known fact that 20 per cent of the world's population receives 83 per cent of the world's income, while the poorest 20 per cent share but 1.4 per cent of the world's income.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Depending on their geographical zone, conflicts seem to attract varying degrees of vigorous attention from the Council. This makes us believe that a structure created following the Second World War is now beginning to function in a completely different context. Some even talk of an anachronism. Clearly, the role and composition of the Security Council must be reviewed. But we fear that the discussion might be limited to merely expanding a club whose members would continue to view their status as a privilege, not a weighty responsibility. The spirit and perhaps even the nature of the Council must be changed. Clearly, we must begin the debate on the Security Council, even if we are still bound by the terms of Article 108 of the Charter. The democratization of international relations is necessary.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The maintenance of peace demands weighty and onerous operations that must be commensurate with the needs. It is right to stress preventive diplomacy: machinery for early warning and action that can be put into play before a conflict breaks out or that can prevent a conflict from taking place. The United Nations, while in demand on all sides, remains available. It is regrettable that among the defenders of this new role for the Organization are those who by not paying their contributions are handicapping the United Nations in this basic task. We must ensure that the role of the Security Council does not give rise to questions about its involvement, its impartiality or its sense of fairness. The system devised 47 years ago has only been able to function for two years, and already there are concerns, some of which are justified.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“In the midst of all the uncertainty, the United Nations seemed to be a place of recourse where East, West, North and South could meet to accept the principles of the Charter and institute methods guaranteeing that armed force would not be used save in the common interest, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in wider freedom. Security, solidarity, progress and freedom: these are words and concepts that 47 years after San Francisco have yet to be given form in the interest of the world's peoples. The Secretary-General's proposals in his Agenda for Peace and in his annual report on the work of the Organization form a good basis for discussion. It must be recalled and stressed that security not based on the interests of all, large and small, is self-limited.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“That picture does not inspire optimism. The collapse of one of the two blocs did not solve the world's problems. Rather, it emphasized the North-South split; old wounds that are still open; internal contradictions within regions; and divisions among nations. In their millions, people are cast out into a life of wandering; children are robbed of their childhood, and of their adolescence too; a future without hope is already the lot of a growing number of people caught in the crossfire between one world that is dying and another that is being born.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The political changes that have taken place in Israel raise hopes that we would wish to see fulfilled on behalf of the people of the region. In Cambodia, efforts must continue to be made by all to implement the Paris Agreements. The unprecedented commitment of the United Nations should be welcomed, encouraged and reinforced. In the heart of Europe, a conflict is developing, the nature of which is what observers tend to limit exclusively to Africa. Practices we thought had disappeared with nazism and condemned alongside apartheid are emerging under the label "ethnic cleansing". This is unacceptable. We cannot accept that Bosnia and Herzegovina be crucified in the name of religion or ethnicity. The London agreement and the Geneva negotiations must be complied with and pursued by all parties sincerely desirous of peace and reconciliation.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“It is now well established that subtle manipulation, together with an absence of security controls, can fan the flames of an already explosive situation. The resumption of the Convention for Democratic South Africa (CODESA) should take place in a climate free of the suspicion born of manoeuvring and calculation. In this respect, we believe that Security Council 765 (1992) of 16 July 1992 is only one step in the right direction. In order to assess the methods and effects of violence, more than 50 observers will be needed. In the Middle East, the process begun at the Madrid Conference has yet to produce the hoped-for results. The Palestinian question remains and the aspirations of the Palestinian people are legitimate and justified.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We hail the maturity of all Angolans, who have thereby agreed to close a difficult chapter in their history. The United Nations also played a positive role there. We hope that these developments will be successful. In Mozambique, similarly, a solution is in the offing, and we hope that a negotiated settlement will restore peace. In South Africa, the hopes of the international community have been dimmed by the massacres of Boipatong and Ciskei. These events certainly were a manifestation of apartheid, whose death throes are just as repugnant and bloody as was its existence. We need to remind the South African authorities that they are responsible for the security of every South African and that these tragic excesses cannot simply be ascribed to animosity among blacks.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“In this respect, we welcome the healthy reaction of our Secretary-General, who is trying to size up the true scale of this tragedy and to find the requisite solutions. We are equally grateful for the international humanitarian assistance channelled there. But much remains to be done to curtail and end the sufferings of the Somalian people. Liberia is still in the throes of a civil war to which Burkina Faso and the other countries of the region cannot remain indifferent. Burkina Faso, shoulder to shoulder with them, will spare no effort to restore lasting peace so that the policy of economic integration, begun within the framework of the Economic Community of West African States, can also be pursued as well as possible. In Angola, general elections are under way after 16 years of conflict suffered by the Angolan people.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Born in 1987, the democratization movement in Burkina Faso, after years of an emergency regime, led to pluralism, to the election of a Head of State on 1 December 1987, and to general elections held in May 1992, in which the political parties asked the people for their votes. Today, democratic institutions are in place and the opposition, which sits in the Assembly, is also represented in the executive branch, where it holds several ministerial portfolios. This transition has been without jolts or major crises, and has led to the social peace necessary to our development efforts. This indispensable social peace is what is lacking in Somalia, where our famished brothers are dying at a mind-boggling rate, whereas weapons are ubiquitous there and have made that martyred country a victim bled dry by intransigence and the absence of dialogue.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“We wish them all a warm welcome and we have no doubt that we will all work together to attain the ideals of the United Nations Charter. Our times have seen the irrepressible aspirations of peoples to freedom, national identity, and well-being flourish with more vigour and insistence than ever before. For some, these aspirations arose from the depths of their alienation, which they now reject; for others, from the example thus set by the former. Baptized as a "wave of democratization", this tempest, sometimes coinciding with developments already under way, swept away many inappropriate or obsolete human edifices to lay bare the ruins or foundations from which we must start building.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“At the outset, I should like to convey the sincere congratulations of the delegation of Burkina Faso to Mr. Ganev on his election to the presidency of the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. In him, we pay a tribute to Bulgaria and to the qualities that earned him these responsibilities. We also pay a tribute to the devotion and conscientiousness with which his predecessor, Ambassador Shihabi of Saudi Arabia, performed his duties. Nine months after our Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, assumed his post, his energy, creative imagination and firm determination have left their mark on the activities of our Organization. By strengthening its universality, all the countries that have been admitted since the forty-sixth session give us grounds for joy.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)