ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT ROBINSON AT THE STATE DINNER HOSTED BY PRESIDENT FREDERICK CHILUBA IN LUSAKA
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT ROBINSON AT THE STATE DINNER HOSTED BY PRESIDENT FREDERICK CHILUBA IN LUSAKA ON 26 SEPTEMBER, 1994
President Chiluba, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honour for me to have the opportunity to visit your beautiful country and the warmth of your welcome has already made me feel at home here. Like the Irish, the reputation of the people of Zambia for openness, friendship and hospitality is legendary. Perhaps that is why the relations between our countries are deep, warm and cordial and continue to strengthen daily.
During my visit here I look forward to seeing and experiencing the vigorous life of your capital city, Lusaka. Later I will visit the Copperbelt and Northern Provinces.
I look forward especially to meeting the Zambian people and to experiencing the rich culture of Zambian life.
Mr. President, Zambia is one of Ireland's priority countries for development co-operation. Our links with Zambia go back to well before your Independence in October 1964. The work of Irish missionaries throughout Zambia is well-known and respected. Shortly after you achieved Independence we were pleased to welcome President Kaunda on a visit to Ireland and as a result of his visit those links deepened and expanded. Since then, through a programme of technical co-operation, Ireland has participated in the development of this young and vibrant nation.
Ireland and Zambia share many historical experiences. Both our nations emerged from a colonial legacy with a determination to secure a better future for our peoples and with a willingness to make our own distinctive contribution on the world stage. As our independence came early in the 1920s we in Ireland have had 40 years longer in which to progress towards the attainment of our objectives.
The young and optimistic Zambia which emerged just 30 years ago has faced many problems. The price fluctuations of copper, the mainstay of the economy, have posed special difficulties for your country, difficulties which you have been striving hard to overcome. Also, during Zambia's early years, the dark clouds of conflict gathered in the region as other countries strove to take their rightful place as independent nations.
Yet for all of these difficulties Zambia made tremendous strides in education, health, water and energy supply, public sector management and economic development generally. We in Ireland have been proud to participate with you in your bold venture and have welcomed the opportunity to share with you our experience and expertise in the public sector and air transportation. Zambia has remained a stable and peaceful place in spite of conflict in this region, which at times spilled over into your country and which cost you dearly in lives and property. To have preserved peace and stability under such difficult circumstances is a great tribute to the people of Zambia.
The fall in copper prices which occurred in the mid 1970s, combined with oil price increases and the escalating war in what was formerly Rhodesia, had a substantial affect on Zambia's economic development and I am aware that Zambia's debt burden dates back to this period, when loans were readily available on the international financial markets and copper prices looked as if they would recover.
Mr. President, I am very conscious that many of the economic difficulties which originated in the mid 1970s are still with you today and have brought their share of hardships on your people. Your Government has been grappling with the task of turning the economy around, endeavouring to make it more competitive, productive and efficient.
The structural adjustment programme, on which your Government has embarked, is no easy task. There are already some positive results in falling inflation and declining interest rates. Economic stability is returning to Zambia, yet I am aware that the price in the social sectors has been high.
Mr. President, I know that Zambia's debt burden is of great concern to you. Ireland is very conscious of the continuing need to address the problem of this debt not just in Zambia, but in many other countries that are trying to establish viable economies to provide appropriate living standards for their peoples. We are also concerned at the impact that historic debt servicing has on the present day balance of payments and investment strategies. Ireland has called for a debt relief package for Africa, in line with the so-called Trinidad terms. We will continue to press our concerns on the debt issue in international fora.
Ireland's development co-operation with Zambia has increased significantly over the past couple of years. Irish involvement relies on the close links that have been established with your administration as well as with local communities and authorities, to ensure maximum impact and quality of our combined development efforts.
One of the major themes of this co-operation programme is community participation and self-help. The programme is deeply involved in the social sectors and it is in these areas that community participation can be most meaningful and most effective. In my work in Ireland I witness daily the inherent power of local communities. I have seen local development groups infused with self-confidence, bringing imaginative and creative solutions to community problems. This self-empowerment of local communities has had real and tangible results with the provision of many facilities that enhance the quality of community life.
I understand that this same sense of self-help and empowerment has flourished in many of your communities, including those where local authorities and Irish technical assistance work closely together. I commend this spirit and philosophy of co-operation and I look forward to visiting some of these projects during the next few days.
Ireland and Zambia may be geographically distant but there are many parallels between this flowering of empowerment at grass roots level in our respective countries.
Mr. President, during your first speech as President of Zambia you said
"A new breeze is blowing in Zambia. The breeze of democracy and freedom. The breeze of human rights. The winds of change predicted for Africa decades ago have finally reached our land."
Since you uttered these words there have been many other positive changes in the region. For your part, Mr. President, you represent a new, democratic Zambia. The delicate flower which is democracy has taken root not just in Zambia, but in Malawi, South Africa and soon, hopefully, in Mozambique. I believe that this growing respect for democracy, human rights and freedom as well as an openness to new ideas, can serve to stimulate and promote the forces of economic and social development. I am hopeful that the cycle of conflict and economic recession which has gripped this region for many years may at last begin to fade. The entry of South Africa into the Southern African Development Community is indeed an historic event, which may provide the framework for closer co-operation and integration between states in the Southern African region to the benefit of all peoples.
Mr. President, Ireland and Zambia are both small countries in the global scale of things. But this need not stop us making significant and meaningful contributions to the cause of international peace and justice, human rights and democracy. We in Ireland have a history of taking principled and independent stands on issues of international importance. The terrible suffering caused by conflicts in Somalia, in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda, show how vulnerable we as human beings are to the consequences of injustice and intolerance and how urgent is our task of finding different, non-destructive, ways of resolving disputes. The size of our countries and our populations need not in any way diminish the strength of our voices in the cause of international peace and justice. Zambia is currently playing a key role in facilitating the peace process in Angola. We in Ireland are constantly seeking a peaceful solution to the problems on our own island.
I am visiting Zambia at a time of great hope on the island of Ireland. Over the past 25 years there have been more than 3,000 deaths directly related to the conflict in Northern Ireland - all of them unnecessary, all of them premature. The best memorial that these people can have is that their children may grow up in a society where each of them can cherish their own cultural heritage free from discrimination, disadvantage and disrespect.
That is the high and noble aim to which both Governments have committed themselves in their efforts to achieve an equitable lasting and peaceful political settlement to the problems of Northern Ireland.
Reconciliation is a healing process based on mutual respect, forgiveness and generosity. Above all it is a process which takes time and patience. The World community has learned, with humility and admiration, from the example of President Mandela and the people of South Africa with this task.
Mr. President, we both assumed office at a time of momentous change and in our own way we reflected those changes. I represent a new, open, pluralist and outward looking Ireland at a time of change in Europe - ideological barriers between east and west have disappeared and a soon-to-be-enlarged European Union is setting the stage for a new common European home based on respect for human rights and democracy.
Mr. President, the ending of superpower rivalry may have removed the threat of mutually assured destruction. Yet in many respects the challenges now facing the world are no less serious. The gap between rich and poor nations continues to expand. The consumption of goods and services in the north continues at an alarming pace. Many habitats, forests, flora and fauna are disappearing and natural resources are being steadily depleted.
Mr. President, during an address in the United States in March last, I said that I wanted to convey a sense of crisis and that I wanted to find the right tone to express the danger.
I said that I believed that the framers of the United Nations charter had found that tone and that the world had listened. More than ever there is a need to find the right tone again and to rededicate ourselves to the search for a global form of sustainable development, so that all the peoples of the earth can enjoy its bounty in a harmonious manner which also respects the planet's capacity for renewal.
Mr. President, you have said that
"we have the right to dream heroic dreams. But more important we have the obligation to make them come true".
I fervently hope that the dreams of the people of Zambia come true.
Thank you.