On Non-selfgoverning Territories (UN, 1999)
On Non-selfgoverning Territories (UN, 1999)
(Текстчитаетсясамериканскимакцентом)
Mr President,
First of all I would like once again to thank the organizers of the seminar, namely the permanent representative of St Lucia, for the hospitality and superb organization shown us at this important meeting
As regards our view of the seminar, it obviously has served a useful goal, of providing for a substantive exchange of views with representatives of the non-selfgoverning territories Here I would like to take note of the highly informative statements by the representatives of Guam and East Timor
At the same time we should point out that some of the most important experts were clearly not prepared for substantive discussion, and the statements of others resembled lectures, filled with obvious truisms
As we see it, it would have been worth making the seminars more substantive As an example, may I suggest that it would have been much more interesting for the seminar participants to learn about the details of the settlement process in the Western Sahara and in East Timor 1 have no doubt that had we requested the draft on autonomy for East Timor or the documents on the referendum in the Western
Sahara prepared by the Secretariat, the seminar discussion would have been much more relevant to contemporary events
We are convinced that in preparing the regional seminars we need to take a more creative approach
In conclusion I would like to state our position regarding the proposal for approval of the seminar report We believe it advisable to keep to the practice of previous years and to take note of the materials used at the seminar The reason for this is clear we would not like the conclusions and recommendations of this kind of project, including the ideas voiced by experts and representatives of NGOs, to be given the status of full-fledged recommendations following the adoption of the report of our special committee by the General Assembly We should act with great restraint regarding the issue of changing the qualitative status of any documents
At the same time, we are ready to accommodate those members of the committee who wish to provide for the broadest possible distribution of the materials from the St Lucia seminar For this reason we would be ready to take note of the seminar report and to publish it as an annex to the report of the committee This will resolve both issues maintaining the official status of the seminar report and providing an opportunity to spread the ideas discussed at this meeting