[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
[May 9, 1991]
[Pages 491-493]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following Discussions With Secretary-General Javier Perez de 
Cuellar de la Guerra of the United Nations
May 9, 1991

    The President. I want to welcome you to the White House today. I 
discussed with you many of the issues on the world's agenda. In a moment 
I'll mention some of the challenges, common challenges we face, but 
before, permit a personal observation.
    I think back to the times that we worked together as Perm Reps up 
there 20 years ago, and I still wonder how it is that I ended up with 
the easier job. [Laughter] But the problems that arrive at your doorstep 
often are the product of years of violence and strife. It falls to you 
to find, through so much hatred and bitterness, the

[[Page 492]]

path to peace.
    For 10 years now, you've led the United Nations. Your years as the 
Secretary-General could merely have been difficult, a study in stubborn 
hope. But instead they've proved to be momentous, proved to be historic. 
And during your years of service, the U.N. has really come of age. After 
decades of ideological stalemate, conflict, and the cold war, the U.N. 
has at long-last taken a major step forward as a true force for peace. 
And today the U.N. can lay claim to a string of successes stretching 
across the globe.
    In Africa, the U.N. played a leading role in the birth of an 
independent Namibia. Elsewhere on the African Continent, the U.N. now is 
at work to end the war in Angola and resolve the future of the Western 
Sahara. Across Asia, the U.N. continue to play a critical role in 
peacemaking efforts in Afghanistan and Cambodia.
    Right here in our own hemisphere, the U.N. has helped the people of 
Nicaragua and Haiti exercise their right to choose their own government, 
and is working to bring peace right now to El Salvador.
    And of course, there is the United Nations role in the liberation of 
Kuwait. The U.N. sent its strong, steady signal every step of the way, 
and defending the defenseless against aggression, keeping faith with its 
founding principles, standing fast for what is good and right.
    Mr. Secretary-General, a great measure of the success belongs to 
you, my friend: the product of your patience and perseverance, your 
immeasurable diplomatic skill, and your unwavering desire for peace. But 
as we talked at lunch, for each success, new challenges remain.
    Consider the unprecedented responsibilities placed upon your good 
offices and the U.N. Secretariat by Security Council Resolution 687--the 
administration of UNICOM, the special commission for eliminating Iraq's 
weapons of mass destruction, the compensation committee; the U.N.'s role 
in demarking the Iraq-Kuwaiti border, developing guidelines for the arms 
embargo against Iraq, and encouraging arms control in the region. All of 
these, all of them, are a daunting task which will challenge the U.N. as 
never before.
    So, Mr. Secretary-General, we're responding to another challenge, 
too: the need to protect and care for tens of thousands of refugees who 
fled home and hearth to escape the brutality of one man, Saddam Hussein.
    For our part, the U.S. has responded to this human wave of tragedy 
with massive emergency relief for the refugees in northern Iraq and 
Turkey. Working with other nations, in close consultation with you, sir, 
in accord with Resolution 688, we are building temporary camps to 
encourage these people to come down from the mountains into the camps 
and, ultimately, to their own villages and towns. We have always looked 
at this relief effort as limited in duration. We are now in the process 
of turning these efforts over to the United Nations, and we look forward 
to working with the U.N. to hasten the day when all these refugees can 
return home, free from fear, free to live in peace.
    In the south, American soldiers provided refuge and care to 
thousands of Iraqis. Those who sought refuge are now in a safe haven in 
Iran or Saudi Arabia. The Blue Helmets are on the scene, and U.N. relief 
agencies are providing assistance to those Iraqis who have chosen to 
remain in the area where the U.N. is now working.
    The U.N.'s work in Iraq is just one of many challenges. Beyond the 
Gulf, we must work to strengthen the U.N. system through appropriate 
reforms, to deliver development assistance where needed, to chart a 
common course of action on global issues ranging from the environmental 
to international drug-trafficking to terrorism. We must build on the 
U.N.'s ability to respond to humanitarian crises which, as we've seen 
most recently in the heart-wrenching ordeal of Bangladesh, speak a 
universal language of simple human compassion.
    Mr. Secretary-General, meeting these challenges is our work--the 
work of the United States--and also the work of the United Nations. I 
thank you, sir, for coming back to Washington so that we could continue 
our practice of close collaboration. And I congratulate you on behalf of 
the American people for doing the world's work--the work of peace. Thank 
you very

[[Page 493]]

much.
    The Secretary-General. Mr. President, as you have just said, this 
visit has been an important opportunity to discuss the urgent issues 
which concern both the United States and the United Nations.
    These discussions have been, as always, cordial, candid, far-
reaching, and productive. However, our consultations, important as they 
have been, are only one part of the significance of this visit. For the 
United Nations, this occasion has again confirmed the support and 
commitment of the United States and its people to the world 
organization.
    For me, personally, it has been a heartwarming expression of a 
longstanding friendship with you, Mr. President.
    It is clear from this visit and from much that has preceded it that 
the United States and the United Nations share the vision of the Charter 
conceived and sealed some 46 years ago on the other shore of this 
nation. The Charter is a plan of action to achieve that vision. The 
world of which it foresees and towards which it commits us to give all 
of our efforts is a practical objective.
    Events since 1945, including those which we have discussed today, 
have confirmed the Charter's declaration that true peace depends on the 
elimination of the causes of conflict. Those causes are complex and 
interrelated. Their worldwide scope and their difficulty demand 
collective action to solve them in accordance with the Charter. Poverty, 
threats to human rights and the environment, social injustice, and the 
full range of global issues menace peace and prevent a world worthy of 
future generations.
    The nations of the world now call insistently upon the United 
Nations to be their forum and their agent for confronting these 
problems. Immediate emergencies and the longer-range demands which they 
present will require the best the United Nations can give and all the 
resources we can muster.
    The response of the world community to these challenges will have to 
match the needs. There is broader agreement than ever before on the 
nature and importance of the responsibility that we must meet. At the 
same time, however, the speed and size of the current events which these 
issues now create require us all to act even more effectively.
    We are at a time which offers us suddenly and remarkably the hope 
and opportunity of great progress towards the kind of world the Charter 
describes. We must seize the moment before the forces and energy 
released by all rigidities can harden into new ones.
    This visit, both in itself and through our work together, has again 
impressed all of us from the United Nations with your determination, Mr. 
President, and seriousness of purpose in that cause.
    Mr. President, I would like to thank you--and through you, the 
people of the United States--for your warm welcome, your hospitality, 
and your support. The spirit of this time with you will sustain our 
continuing work at the United Nations to realize the promises before us 
and to turn to action the principles which you and we both serve.

                    Note: The President spoke at 1:18 p.m. in the East 
                        Room at the White House. In his remarks, he 
                        referred to President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. 
                        Prior to their remarks, the President and the 
                        Secretary-General met privately in the Oval 
                        Office and with U.S. and U.N. officials in the 
                        Cabinet Room, and then attended a luncheon in 
                        the Old Family Dining Room.