Speech of the President of the Republic Sali Berisha
At the commemorative meeting on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations
Mr. President, Excellency, It is my particular pleasure to congratulate you on your election as President of the General Assembly for the 50th session and to greet the Secretary-General, H.E. Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his masterful leadership of the Organization.
Speech of the President
of the Republic
Sali Berisha
Mr. President,
Excellency,
It is my particular pleasure to congratulate
you on your election as President of the
General Assembly for the 50th session and
to greet the Secretary-General, H.E. Dr.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his masterful
leadership of the Organization.
Today, 50 years after the entry into force of
the Charter of the United Nations, we come
here with the firm conviction that the principles
and commitments embodied in it have served
and will serve humanity in achieving its
aspirations for peace and global security, the
equality of peoples and their right to self-
determination, international cooperation for
development and progress, respect for the
freedoms and rights of individuals.
The Republic of Albania highly values the
contribution of the United Nations during this
half-century to the prevention of a global
conflict, to the settlement of conflicts, to the
promotion of international security, to the
relief of the suffering of millions of people in
conflict or in poverty, to support for economic
development in the world and for democratic
processes.
The United Nations celebrate their 50th
anniversary at a moment of great significance
for humanity and of major achievements,
among which I would particularly mention the
fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the
communist dictatorships from which many
countries suffered, including Albania. The fall
of the Iron Curtain, in which the United
Nations also had a positive influence and
positive results, removed the danger of a
broad military confrontation and opened a
period of difficult transition for the countries of
Eastern Europe and not only for them. In this
process, international institutions were not
always found to be protective, but also
restrictive.
The international community is moving toward
the 21st century, recognizing the need to
redimension itself toward a more secure
international order for all. The United Nations
and its agencies can make a new contribution
to this trend in the contemporary history of
humanity.
Mr. President,
Albania, as a Balkan country, is very concerned
by the violation of human values and the
breach of international conventions and
agreements in the former Yugoslavia. We have
condemned Serbian aggression, the cause of
the suffering of millions of people there, in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, and we condemn the
criminality of violence and ethnic massacres.
We support the recent peace talks mediated by
the United States and believe that the
engagement of NATO troops is vital, not only
for establishing peace and implementing a
sustainable solution that does not reward the
aggressor in B-H, but also for preventing a
chain of conflicts in the Balkans and beyond,
which ultranationalist forces would wish to
incite. On the other hand, the Balkan crisis
began in Kosovo and without a solution to the
Kosovo issue there can be no long-term peace
in the former Yugoslavia or stability in the
Balkans.
It is essential that the package of talks of the
contact group for resolving the conflict in the
former Yugoslavia include dialogue and direct
negotiations between the authorities of the
democratic institutions there, the start of talks
between the authorities in Belgrade and the
legitimate representatives of the Albanians of
Kosovo in the presence of a third party, until
the future status of Kosovo is resolved in
accordance with international agreements.
By calling for the implementation of
Resolution 49/204 of the General Assembly,
adopted last December, which includes these
requirements:
The United Nations will render a great service
to peace and security in our region and
continent.
Albania remains determined not to accept the
change of borders by force and to establish
regional cooperative relations with its
neighbors. In line with this policy, we
consider it a genuine achievement the
commitment, two days ago in the halls of this
Palace of the United Nations, of the presidents
of Bulgaria, Turkey, Macedonia and Albania to
realize a horizontal corridor integrating
transport and telecommunications, with reach
also to other states in the region and beyond.
This corridor brings our countries closer and
unites them with one another, the Balkan
countries with the European Union, and East
with West. It is driven by deeds and ideas. It
will also be the USA. We would value the
commitment of the World Bank and other
financial institutions to its realization.
In the project of the vertical Ljubljana-Athens
corridor there would be another integrative
project in the Balkan Peninsula.
Mr. President
In these 50 years of the UN’s existence,
Albania experienced one of the harshest
dictatorial experiments on the continent. In
flagrant violation of the principles of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which it
had signed in Albania, more than 400,000
Albanians were imprisoned, interned, tortured
or executed, and hundreds of religious
institutions, many of them centuries old, were
mined and destroyed.
I have the pleasure to declare today that in
Albania the rule of law and a market economy
have been established, and all the laws of the
communist era have been replaced. From a
country where freedoms and human rights were
forbidden by law, Albania now has dozens of
private newspapers and magazines; from a
country of banned beliefs, it is now a country of
religious tolerance par excellence; from a
country that confiscated the Bretton Woods
institutions as enslavers, it now cooperates
closely with them and has recorded serious
successes in integration into Euro-Atlantic
institutions. From the example that signed the
Helsinki Final Act, it has now met the criteria
and even the Copenhagen document of the CSCE
for human rights and minorities. From a country
of total collectivization, today 75% of GDP in
Albania is produced by the private sector,
economic growth is in double digits, while
inflation is in single digits and external debt
accounts for less than 10% of the GDP of that
time. Freedom is indeed bearing results in
Albania. From an isolated and closed country
on the planet, it is now firmly engaged in full
integration into the international community, at
regional level by becoming a member of the
Council of Europe, and globally by taking an
active part in the activities of the Organization.
Albania has attached importance to the
settlement of its financial obligations to the
Organization, and has expressed its will and
made efforts to take part with troops in the
United Nations peacekeeping operations. The
decision of the Albanian Government to submit
a candidacy for election to the Security Council
for the non-permanent seat reserved for the
Group of Eastern Europe for the 1996-1997
term is an expression of Albania’s will and
readiness for more active participation in the
Organization. We believe that even small
countries, and the non-permanent seat
reserved for the Group of Eastern Europe for
the 1996-1997 term, is an expression of the
will and readiness of Albania for more active
participation in the Organization.
We believe that even small countries can make
valuable contributions in the organs of the
United Nations and we see the denial of fair
representation as a discriminatory expression
against them that undermines the spirit of the
Charter.
The Republic of Albania supports increasing the
number of members of the Security Council
because this would better reflect the new reality
and increase its effectiveness. The more than
threefold increase in the number of members of
the Organization over these 50 years requires
that the role of small states be reassessed; they
are very interested in a strong Organization and
have aspirations to contribute actively to its
work. We consider it important that these
countries be given the opportunity for fairer
representation in the principal organs.
With the adoption of the Declaration at the end
of this meeting, the Republic of Albania is
committed to cooperation in exploring the role
of the United Nations for peace, development,
equality and justice, to serve the present
generations and to secure a better future for
the generations to come.
Thank you for your attention!
New York, 24 October 1995