Mr. President,

At the outset, my delegation is delighted to see you, Minister, presiding before us today. Allow me to extend our sincere congratulations to you, Sir, on your delegation's assumption of the Presidency of the Security Council for the month of December. We have every confidence that under your wise and able guidance, the issues before the Council will be brought to a successful conclusion. Allow me also to extend felicitations to Ambassador Danilo Turk, Permanent Representative of Slovenia, for his skillful stewardship of the Council's activities last month.

In this opportunity, the Indonesian Delegation would like to express its appreciation to you and the members of the Council for convening this interactive discussion at a critical juncture in the African continent. We also commend the format of the discussion today, enhancing the possibility of further involvement of Member States that are not Members of the Council on issues under discussion in the Security Council. We look forward to the application of such a format on discussions of crucial issues concerning the maintenance of international peace and security.

Before proceeding further, I should also like to express our sincere gratitude to the Secretary-General for his opening remarks which focused our attention to his innovative suggestions and ideas for improving the United Nations partnership with Africa.

Mr. President,

As we all know, the African continent has for a long time been plagued by internal and cross border conflicts that show only marginal signs of ending. As democratic Africa blooms, war torn Africa bleeds. While African States such as Nigeria have consigned their internal wars to the past, others are still locked in a seemingly endless cycle of revolution and violence. Regretfully to note, half of the violent conflicts in the world are in Africa. The reality also is that the worst-hit victims are not the combatants but the millions of innocent civilians caught in the middle.

In addressing these complex and inter-related issues, the General Assembly and the Security Council, have held a myriad of discussions and even took decisions on Africa this past year, both on generic and focused issues. Those discussions have provided the opportunity to take stock of the problems faced by Africa, and thereby enabled the submission of several thoughtful suggestions.

However, the magnitude of problems facing Africa are still enormous. Before commenting on the three basic questions forwarded by the Presidency, allow me to make the following remarks. It is not erroneous to assume that conflicts wherever they take place, the population in question holds the key to their settlement. Nevertheless, as the Secretary-General stated in his Report (document no. S/1999/1008) that those nations making good-faith efforts and adopting enlightened policies deserve much greater support than they are now receiving. It is clear, that the predicament in Africa can be attributed to a lack of sincere and thorough commitment from the international community, particularly the Security Council, both in providing adequate personnel in pursue of peace-keeping and conflicts prevention efforts and providing the necessary funds to sustain it. While welcoming the generous contribution of the United Kingdom to the United Nations Trust Fund for improving Preparedness for Conflict Prevention and Peacekeeping in Africa, it is deplorable to note that the Fund as an example of several Funds intended for Africa within the Organization, has received only one contribution, of US$ 250, 745.

My delegation shares the view that if the international community, especially Member States which have been blessed with surplus resources could demonstrate a genuine commitment to Africa, then without doubt, it would increase the prospects of success in peace-making and conflicts prevention efforts in that continent and also pave the way to sustainable development efforts in a post-conflict peace-building era.

In this context, and its relation to the first and third question, on improving coordination and cooperation between the Security Council and the OAU and the key sub-regional organizations, and also on creating additional instruments of the Council for tackling the issue of Africa, we would like to convey our deepest appreciation for the role played by OAU, other key sub-regional organizations and several African States which have contributed significantly in pursuit of conflict settlements. In the endeavors to improve coordination between the Council and these regional organizations, perhaps it would be most beneficial, if representatives from each organization could meet simultaneously in order to establish terms of reference which will be used as a basis for promoting concrete coordination and cooperation between the organizations in an agreed footing and in accordance with the provisions of the Charter.

In situations where the basis has been laid out and agreed upon, one could envision the possibility of establishing a Security Council Team on Africa consisting of several members of the Council, representing one for each regional group and supported consensusly by all the Members of the Council, with the dual function, to serve as a clearing house for information on African issues in the Council and to submit concrete recommendations in close coordination with the Office of the Secretary-General, OAU, other key sub-regional organization and relevant African countries, on issues of peace-making and conflict prevention. The establishment of such mechanism could also serve as an early warning system in order to prevent major humanitarian disaster in the future.

In addressing question number two, on meeting the needs for African peacekeeping more effectively, several main issues need to be highlighted. In our view, while welcoming the recommendation made by the Secretary-General in his latest Report on Africa, to support regional and sub-regional initiatives in the areas of conflict prevention and maintenance of peace, based on agreements with the regional organization and the host country, the Security Council should also explore the possibility of establishing preventive deployment force as in Europe in order to prevent the enlargement of conflicts to other areas.

It is my delegation's belief too that in the efforts to bolster the capabilities of African peacekeeping, the endeavor to increase the quantity and quality of national and regional capability should be well supported, with the involvement of the international community, including in areas of training and information exchange within the framework of the United Nations System as discussed at the special meeting convened by the Secretariat in coordination with OAU on 21 January 1999 where 51 states, including African States participated.

In addressing the issue of African peacekeeping capabilities especially in terms of real time, it is worth while to note that the Standby Arrangement System under the United Nations needs to be further pursued not only by African States but also by other countries. Let me avail of this opportunity to convey that Indonesia is now considering the possibility of further increasing our peacekeeping participation in Africa.

Finally, Mr. President, it is my delegation fervent hope that our discussion today will enrich our coordinated approach to the issues of the maintenance of peace and security in Africa and does not in any way gives room for the encroachment of Afro-pessimism or even Africa fatigue in the international community as a whole.

I thank you, Mr. President