A special meeting of world leaders, gathered in New York to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, began this morning with praise for the Organization's past accomplishments and calls for its democratization and reform.

Opening the meeting, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali declared that the world of the twenty-first century would confront two great opposing forces: globalization and fragmentation. The forces of globalization would cause people to seek refuge in small groups, while fragmentation could breed fanaticism, isolationism, separatism and the proliferation of civil war.

He said the financial crisis facing the Organization reflected the fact that Member States simply did not regard the United Nations as a priority. If measures to resolve the problem could not be set in motion by the end of the year, a special session of the Assembly should be convened to deal with the financial crisis.

General Assembly President Diogo Freitas do Amaral (Portugal) said it was the duty of the international community to support the United Nations. "Let us praise the United Nations and its founding fathers. Let us fight the destructive critics of the Organization and not allow them to be the United Nations liquidating fathers. Let us take upon ourselves the noble and necessary task of becoming from today the reforming fathers of the United Nations."

Statements this morning were made by President of the United States, William J. Clinton; the President of Ukraine, Leonid D. Kuchma; King Hussain Ibn Talal of Jordan; the President of Sri Lanka, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga; the President of Namibia, Sam Nujoma; President Frederick J.T. Chiluba of Zambia; President Suleyman Demirel of Turkey; Captain Regent of San Marino, Pier Natalino Mularoni; President Lennart Meri of Estonia; President Kim Young Sam of the Republic of Korea; President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia; and President Boris N. Yeltsin of the Russian Federation.

Also addressing the session were the President of Cuba, Fidel Castro Ruz; Sultan and Yanh Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah; the Vice-President of Uruguay, Hugo Batalla; the Prime Minister of New Zealand, James Brendan Bolger; the Prime Minister of Poland, Jozef Oleksy; the Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland; the President of Spain, Felipe Gonzalez; the Prime Minister of Japan, Tomiichi Murayama; Secretary of State of Switzerland, Jakob Kellenberger; and the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat.

The special commemorative meeting will resume at 3 p.m. today.

For further details please see source:
MEETINGS COVERAGE

For further details please see official record:
A/50/PV.35

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