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_TRIBUNE FEATURE SUPPLEMENT

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of countries which are permanent
members of the Security Council and
the location, of the chairman of the
non-aligned movement.

It appears to us, that with the aim of
Strengthening trust and mutual under-
Standing, it could be possible to set up
under the aegis of the United Nations
Organization a mechanism for exten-
Sive international verification of com-
Pliance with agreements to lessen
international tension, limit armaments
and for monitoring the military situa-
tion in conflict aréas. The mechanism
would function using various forms and
methods of monitoring to collect infor-
mation and promptly submit it to the
United Nations. This would make it

possible to have an objective picture of .
events taking place, for a timely detec-°

tion of preparations for hostilities, to
impede a sneak attack, to take meas-
ures to avert an armed conflict and pre-
vent it from expanding and worsening.

We are arriving at the conclusion that
wider use should be made of United
Nations military observers and United
Nations peace-keeping forces in disen-
aging the troops of warring sides and
Observing ceasefire and armistice
agreements.

: And, of course, at all stages of a con-
flict extensive use should be made of all
means for a peaceful settlement of dis-
putes and differences between states.
One should offer one’s good offices,
One’s mediation with the aim of achiev-
ing an armistice. The ideas and initia-
tives concerning non-governmental
Commissions and groups which would
analyze the causes, circumstances and
Methods of resolving various concrete
Conflict situations appear to be fruitful.

The Security Council permanent
Members could become guarantors of
regional security. They could, on their

Part, assume the obligation not to use
force or the threat of force, to renounce

any demonstrative military presence.
This is so because such a practice is one
of the factors of fanning up regional
Conflicts.

A drastic intensification and expan-
Sion of cooperation among states in up-
Tooting international terrorism is ex-
tremely important. It would be expe-
dient to concentrate this cooperation
Within the framework of the United Na-
tions Organization. In our opinion, it
Would be useful to create under its aegis
a tribunal to investigate acts of interna-
onal terrorism.

More coordination in the struggle
against apartheid as a destabilizing fac-
tor of international magnitude would

| also be justified.

As we see it, all the above-stated
Measures could be organically built into
an all-embracing system of peace and

Security.

Economic

security

The events and tendencies of the past

decades have expanded this concept,

'mparting new features and specificities

to it. One of them is the problem of
‘“conomic security. A world in which a

Whole continent can find itself on the

nk of death from starvation and in
which huge masses of people are suffer-
'ng from almost permanent malnutrition
'S not a safe world. Neither is a world
Safe in which a multitude of countries
ey peoples are in a strangling noose of

evt.

The economic interests of individual
Countries or their groups are indeed so
different and contradictory that a con-
Sensus on the concept of the New.

orld Economic Order seems hard to
achieve. We do hope, however, that the

instinct of self-preservation should
snap into action here as well. It is sure
to manifest itself if it becomes possible
to look into the chain of priorities and
see that there are circumstances, men-
acing in their inevitability, and that it is
high time that the inert political mental-
ity inherited from past views of the out-
side world be abandoned. This world
has ceased to be a sphere divided into
domains and zones of vital interests for
the big and the strong... . %. ;

The imperatives of the times compel
us to institutionalise many common-
sense notions. It is not philanthropy
which prompted our proposal to agree
on the reduction of interest payments
under bank credits and the elaboration
of extra benefits for the least developed
nations. This holds benefit for all, name-
ly a secure future. If the debt burden of
the developing world is alleviated, the
chances for such a future will grow. It is
also possible to limit debt payments by
each developing country to the share of
its annual export earnings without
detriment to development, accept ex-
port commodities in payment of debt,
remove protectionist barriers on the
borders of creditor-nations and stop add-
ing extra interest when deferring pay-
ments under debts.

There may be different attitudes to
these proposals. There is no- doubt,
however, that the majority of interna-
tional community members realize the
need for immediate actions to alleviate
the developing world’s debt burden. If
that is so, it is possible to start working
out the program through concerted
effort.

These words ‘‘through concerted ef-
fort’. are very important for today’s
world. The relationship between dis-
armament and development, confirmed

at the recent international conference in _
New York, can be implemented if none

of the strong and rich stay aloof. I have
already expressed the view that the Se-
curity Council member states, repre-
sented by their top officials, could jointly
discuss this problem and work out a
coordinated approach. I confirm this
proposal.

Thorn of

experience

Ecological security. It is not secure in
the direct meaning of the word when
currents of poison flow along river
channels, when poisonous rains pour
down from the sky, when the atmos-
phere polluted with industrial and
transport waste chokes cities and whole
regions, when the development of
atomic engineering is justified by unac-
ceptable risks.

Many have suddenly begun to per-
ceive all this not as something abstract,
but as a real part of their own ex-
perience. The confidence that this
won't affect us, characteristic of past
outlooks, has disappeared. They say
that one thorn of experience is worth
more than a whole forest of instruc-
tions. Forus, Chernobyl became sucha

thorn... :
The relationship between humans

el

Mikhail Gorbachev
with French president.
Francois Mitterand
during the general
secretary's visit to
France in October,
1985.

eel

and the environment has become men-
acing. Problems of ecological security
affect all — rich and poor. What is
needed is a global strategy of environ-
mental protection and the rational use
of resources. We suggest starting its
elaboration within the framework of the
UN special program.

States already exchange appropriate
information and notify international or-
ganizations of developments. We be-
lieve that this order should be legiti-
mized by introducing the principle of
governments’ annual report about their
conservation activities and about eco-
logical accidents, on their territories —

both those that occurred and those that

were prevented.

Realizing the need for opening a
common front of economic and eco-
logical security and starting its forma-
tion mean defusing a delay-action bomb
planted deep inside humanity’s exis-
tence by history, by people themselves.

Human rights. One can name all the
many top statesmen of our times who
threatened to use nuclear weapons.
Some may object: It is one thing to
threaten and another to use. Indeed,
they haven’t used them. Campaigning
for human rights, however, is inno way
compatible with the threat to use weap-
ons of mass destruction. We hold it is
unacceptable to talk about human
rights and liberties while intending to
hang in outer space overhead the
“‘chandeliers’’ of exotic weapons. The
only down-to-earth element in that
“‘exoticism’’ is the potentiality of
humanity’s annihilation. The rest is in
dazzling wrapping.

I agree — The world cannot be con-
sidered secure if human rights are vio-
lated. I will only add: if a large part of
our world has no elementary conditions
for a life worthy of humans; if millions
of people have the full ‘‘right’’ to go
hungry, to have no roof over their head
and to be jobless and sick indefinitely
when treatment is something they can-
not afford; and if, finally, the basic
human right, the right to life, is
disregarded.

First of all, it is necessary that na-
tional legislation and administrative
rules\ in the humanitarian sphere
everywhere be brought in line with
international obligations and standards.

‘Simultaneously it would be possible
to turn to coordinating a broad selection
of practical steps, for instance, to work-
ing out a world information program
under UN auspices to familiarize peo-
ples with one another’s life, life as it is,
not as someone would like to present it.

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That is precisely why such a project
should envisage ending the flow of in-
formation of ‘‘enemy image”’ stereo-
types, of bias, prejudices and absurd
concoctions; of deliberate distortion
and unscrupulous violation of the truth.

There is much promise in the task of
coordinating unified international legal
criteria for handling in a humanitarian
spirit issues of family reunification,
Marriages, contacts between people
and organizations, visa regulations and
so on. What has been achieved in this
regard within the framework of the
all-European process should be accept-
ed as a starting point.

We favour the establishment of a
special fund of humanitarian coopera-
tion of the United Nations formed from
voluntary. state and private contribu-
tions on the basis of the reduction of
military spending.

It is advisable that all states join the
UNESCO conventions in the sphere of
culture, including the conventions on
protection of the world cultural heri-

_ tage, on the means of prohibition and

preventing the illicit import, export and
transfer of ownership of cultural prop-
erty.

Recent alarming signals have pushed
to the top of the agenda the idea of
creating a world-wide network of medi-
cal cooperation in treating the most
dangerous diseases, including AIDS,
and combating drug addiction and
alcoholism. The existing structures of
the World Health Organization make it
possible to establish such a network on
relatively short notice. The leaders of
the world movement of physicians have
important ideas on this issue.

Dialogue on humanitarian problems
could be conducted on a bilateral basis,
within the forms of negotiation that
have already been established. We

propose: holding it also within the ~

framework of an international con-
ference in Moscow, and made this pro-
posal at the Vienna meeting in Novem-
ber last year.

Pooling efforts in the sphere of cul-
ture, medicine and humanitarian rights
is yet another integral part of the system
of comprehensive security.

The suggested system of comprehen-
sive security will be effective to the ex-
tent the United Nations, its Security
Council and other international insti-
tutions and mechanisms effectively
function. It will require enhancing the
authority and role of the UN and the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
The need to establish a world space
organization is also clearly felt. It could
work in future in close contact with the
UN as an autonomous part of its Sys-
tem. UN specialized agencies should
also become regulators of international