[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[September 6, 2000]
[Pages 1758-1760]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York City
September 6, 2000

    Madam President, Mr. Secretary-
General, my fellow leaders, let me begin by 
saying it is a great honor to have this unprecedented gathering of world 
leaders in the United States.
    We come together not just at a remarkable moment on the calendar but 
at the dawn of a new era in human affairs, when globalization and the 
revolution in information technology have brought us closer together 
than ever before. To an extent unimaginable just a few years ago, we 
reach across geographical and cultural divides. We know what is going on 
in each other's countries. We share experiences, triumphs, tragedies, 
aspirations.
    Our growing interdependence includes the opportunity to explore and 
reap the benefits of the far frontiers of science and the increasingly 
interconnected economy. And as the Secretary-General just reminded us, it also includes shared 
responsibilities to free humanity from poverty, disease, environmental 
destruction, and war. That responsibility, in turn, requires us to make 
sure the United Nations is up for the job.
    Fifty-five years ago the U.N. was formed to save succeeding 
generations from the scourge of war. Today there are more people in this 
room with the power to achieve that goal than have ever been gathered in 
one place. We find today fewer wars between nations, but more wars 
within them. Such internal conflicts, often driven by ethnic and 
religious differences, took 5 million lives in the last decade, most of 
them completely innocent victims.
    These conflicts present us with a stark challenge: Are they part of 
the scourge the U.N. was established to prevent? If so, we must respect 
sovereignty and territorial integrity but still find a way to protect 
people as well as borders.
    The last century taught us that there are times when the 
international community must take a side, not merely stand between the 
sides or on the sidelines. We faced such a test and met it when Mr. 
Milosevic tried to close the last century 
with a final chapter of ethnic cleansing and slaughter. We have faced 
such a test for 10 years in Iraq, where the U.N. has approved a fair 
blueprint spelling out what must be done. It is consistent with our 
resolutions and our values, and it must be enforced.

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    We face another test today in Burma, where a brave and popular 
leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, once again has 
been confined, with her supporters in prisons and her country in 
distress, in defiance of repeated U.N. resolutions.
    But most conflicts and disputes are not so clear-cut. Legitimate 
grievances and aspirations pile high on both sides. Here there is no 
alternative to principled compromise and giving up old grudges in order 
to get on with life. Right now, from the Middle East to Burundi to the 
Congo to South Asia, leaders are facing this kind of choice, between 
confrontation and compromise.
    Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister 
Barak are with us here today. They have promised 
to resolve the final differences between them this year, finally 
completing the Oslo process embodied in the Declaration of Principles 
signed 7 years ago this month at the White House.
    To those who have supported the right of Israel to live in security 
and peace, to those who have championed the Palestinian cause these many 
years, let me say to all of you: They need your support now, more than 
ever, to take the hard risks for peace. They have the chance to do it, 
but like all life's chances, it is fleeting and about to pass. There is 
not a moment to lose.
    When leaders do seize this chance for peace, we must help them. 
Increasingly, the United Nations has been called into situations where 
brave people seek reconciliation, but where the enemies of peace seek to 
undermine it. In East Timor, had the United Nations not engaged, the 
people would have lost the chance to control their future.
    Today I was deeply saddened to learn of the brutal murder of the 
three U.N. relief workers there by the militia in West Timor, and I urge 
the Indonesian authorities to put a stop to these abuses.
    In Sierra Leone, had the United Nations not engaged, countless 
children now living would be dead. But in both cases, the U.N. did not 
have the tools to finish the job. We must provide those tools with 
peacekeepers that can be rapidly deployed with the right training and 
equipment, missions well- defined and well-led, with the necessary 
civilian police.
    And we must work, as well, to prevent conflict; to get more children 
in school; to relieve more debt in developing countries; to do more to 
fight malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS, which cause a quarter of all the 
deaths in the world; to do more to promote prevention and to stimulate 
the development and affordable access to drugs and vaccines; to do more 
to curb the trade in items which generate money that make conflict more 
profitable than peace, whether diamonds in Africa or drugs in Colombia.
    All these things come with a price tag. And all nations, including 
the United States, must pay it. These prices must be fairly apportioned, 
and the U.N. structure of finances must be fairly reformed so the 
organization can do its job. But those in my country or elsewhere who 
believe we can do without the U.N. or impose our will upon it misread 
history and misunderstand the future.
    Let me say to all of you, this is the last opportunity I will have 
as President to address this General Assembly. It is the most august 
gathering we have ever had, because so many of you have come from so far 
away. If I have learned anything in these last 8 years, it is, whether 
we like it or not, we are growing more interdependent. We must look for 
more solutions in which all sides can claim a measure of victory and 
move away from choices in which someone is required to accept complete 
defeat. That will require us to develop greater sensitivity to our 
diverse political, cultural, and religious claims. But it will require 
us to develop even greater respect for our common humanity.
    The leaders here assembled can rewrite human history in the new 
millennium. If we have learned the lessons of the past, we can leave a 
very different legacy for our children. But we must believe the simple 
things: that everywhere in every land, people in every station matter; 
everyone counts; everyone has a role to play; and we all do better when 
we help each other.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 9:55 a.m. in the General Assembly Hall at 
the United Nations. In his remarks, he referred to U.N. Millennium 
Summit cochair President Tarja Halonen of Finland; U.N. Secretary-
General Kofi Annan; Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority; 
Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel; and President Slobodan Milosevic of 
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).

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