RESUMO DA SESSÃO DE NOVEMBRO 3 1998
CONSELHO PERMANENTE DA
ORGANIZAÇÃO DOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS
COMISSÃO DE
SEGURANÇA HEMISFÉRICA |
OEA/Ser.G
CP/CSH/SA.58/98
2 dezembro 1998
Original: inglês |
Súmula da reunião realizada em 3 de novembro de 19981
1. Impacto do Furacão Mitch na América Central
O Primeiro Vice-Presidente chamou a atenção da Comissão para a
passagem do Furacão Mitch pela América Central. Consciente da perda de vidas e da
devastação sofrida pela região, a Comissão guardou um minuto de silêncio, expressou
sua solidariedade com os Governos e povos dos países afetados e a eles apresentou suas
condolências.
Os Representantes Permanentes da Nicarágua e de Honduras, Embaixadores
Felipe Rodríguez Chaves e Laura Elena Núñez Flores, respectivamente, e o Representante
de Belize discorreram sobre o impacto do furacão em seus países.
Atendendo a pedido do Primeiro Vice-Presidente, o Chefe de Pessoal da
Secretaria-Geral informou a Comissão sobre as iniciativas da Secretaria-Geral no sentido
de assistir os países afetados.
A Comissão insistiu na urgência de que a Junta Interamericana de
Defesa (JID), o FONDEM da OEA e a Fundação Pan-Americana de Desenvolvimento (FPAD)
prestem assistência aos países centro-americanos afetados. A Comissão também solicitou
à Secretaria que lhe apresente um relatório sobre a incidência e gravidade de desastres
naturais e os recursos de que se dispõe, relatório esse que ajudaria a Comissão em suas
deliberações sobre a conveniência e a viabilidade da criação de um fundo especial que
responda aos desastres naturais.
2.
Consideração da resolução AG/RES. 1567 (XXVIII-O/98),
"Preocupações especiais de segurança dos pequenos Estados Insulares"
a)
Exposição do Primeiro Vice-Presidente
O Primeiro Vice-Presidente fez uma exposição sobre as preocupações
especiais de segurança dos pequenos Estados insulares do Caribe.
b)
Observações do Coordenador de Assuntos de Segurança
Hemisférica da Secretaria-Geral
O Coordenador de Assuntos de Segurança Hemisférica da
Secretaria-Geral, Doutor Ricardo Santamaría, falou das medidas ultimamente adotadas pela
Secretaria-Geral em resposta às preocupações especiais de segurança dos pequenos
Estados insulares. O Doutor Santamaría informou que, obedecendo ao Plano de Trabalho
1998-1999 da Comissão, a Secretaria-Geral apresentará, em janeiro de 1999, uma versão
atualizada de seu último relatório a esse respeito.2
c) Comentários das delegações
Várias delegações formularam comentários sobre o assunto e sobre as
idéias expostas pelo Primeiro Vice-Presidente e pela Secretaria-Geral. Observou-se que os
Estados membros da OEA estão conscientes da natureza especial da segurança dos pequenos
Estados insulares. Também se reconheceu que é necessário continuar a definir e promover
a aplicação de novas medidas de cooperação que atendam a essas preocupações
especiais de segurança.
A Comissão solicitou à Secretaria que distribuísse cópia das
exposições do Primeiro Vice-Presidente e do Representante Permanente de Antígua e
Barbuda, Embaixador Lionel A. Hurst.3
3. Assuntos diversos
Assinatura de acordo de paz entre o Equador e o Peru
O Primeiro Vice-Presidente transmitiu aos Governos do Equador e do Peru
as congratulações da Comissão pela assinatura do acordo de paz entre eles, considerado
um passo histórico no sentido da solução de prolongada questão.
APPENDIX
Presentation by Ambassador Richard Bernal
Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the OAS
First Vice-Chair of the Committee on Hemispheric Security
The issue of the security of small states is one of critical importance
in this hemisphere because over a half of the membership of the Organization of American
States consists of small states. Indeed, very small island states make up about a third of
the membership. In addition to that, I might direct your attention to the fact that if you
look at the number of countries which make up the world today and you were to use a
population of say 10 million, you would find that at least half of the countries of the
world today are small. If you were to use one million you would find that there are about
40 of the 190 odd countries have a population of less that one million. Small states are
therefore, an important phenomenon in the global society. In addition to that, the number
of small states has increased because a) there has been fragmentation of larger states,
and b) increasingly micro-states are finding it feasible to become politically
independent. Clearly, the security of small states is an issue which is here to stay and
one which is likely to become even more important in the future.
The importance of the security of small states was recognized by the
Twenty-Eighth Regular Session of the General Assembly in Caracas, when it adopted
resolution AG/RES 1567. This resolution highlighted the conclusions of the High Level
Meeting on the Special Security Concerns of Small Island States which was held in San
Salvador last February. This Organization has recognized the importance of this issue and
sought to give meaningful expression to addressing this issue in the work of this
Committee.
These conclusions were once again acknowledged in the recognition of
the special needs and the diverse dimensions of the security needs of small island states.
It was also recognized that these concerns go beyond the military and political aspects
which have traditionally constituted the approach to national security of states in the
past. Today, the concept of security encompasses a much broader range of economic, social,
cultural and other aspects of security. This type of multidimensional approach to the
scope of security recognizes the strategic link between economic development and social
peace on the one hand, and political stability and democratic governance on the other.
Where the former conditions do not exist, poverty and violence threatens the ability to
sustain the latter and thus constitutes a major threat to the national security of small
island states. In an era of rapid globalization and increased interdependence in every
sense, exogenous events spread or spill over between countries and can have a profound
impact on the national security of small developing states.
FACTORS INFLUENCING SECURITY
I will first look at some of the social and environmental factors which
can militate against the security of small island states in the Caribbean and then go on
to talk about the economic threats to security. We now recognize that these include:
- drug trafficking and money laundering;
- illicit arms trafficking and the link to terrorism, crime and violence;
- natural disasters and long-term ecological change such as climate change;
- transborder shipment of nuclear and hazardous wastes through sea and airspace of small
island states; and
- economic vulnerability and poverty.
These are just some of the aspects of the newer dimensions which we
have recognized in the security of small states, particularly small island states. Such
problems are of course not unique to small island states in the Caribbean. However, these
states because of their extremely small size suffer the consequences to a much greater
extent than would normally be associated with these dimensions.
In addition, the geographical location of the small island states of
the Caribbean make them a natural area through which transit a range of materials
including illicit drugs and arms it is a natural corridor for their transhipment
and movement, and therefore these small island states are exposed, to a considerable
extent, to the movement of dangerous goods through this area.
1. Drug Trafficking
The transshipment of arms is of particular concern as it now poses a
major security challenge. It directly threatens the social fabric of small island states
because it stimulates violence and is associated with the illicit drug trade which now
assumes such enormous size and involves so much money that it is difficult for small
island states to withstand the pressure. Small states are particularly vulnerable because
of their very limited defence capability. These states are not able to withstand the
enormous resources that are involved in drug trafficking, and the associated traffic in
arms which is so closely related to drug trafficking. In addition, the traffic in drugs
involves introducing and spreading the use of drugs in these small societies and this is
associated with crime, violence and corruption.
In addition, the fact that small island states in the Caribbean are
located close to major production points of drugs and also major markets for drugs
encourages drug smuggling and encourages the multinational drug trafficking groups to
begin to locate increasingly in small island states. Efforts to combat drug smuggling have
proven to be an expensive exercise, diverting substantial resources from social investment
in areas such as education and health. In addition, the police and military capability in
small island states is very limited particularly in equipment such as ships and airplanes,
which makes it difficult, despite the strong commitment of governments in this area, to
struggle against drug trafficking and firearms; it makes it difficult to translate that
will into efficacious action.
2. Arms Trafficking
The OAS action in this area has been the adoption of the Inter-American
Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition,
Explosives and Other Related Materials; CICAD's Model Regulations for the Control of the
International Movement of Firearms, their Parts and Components and Ammunition;
CICADs Model Regulations Concerning Laundering Offences Connected to Illicit Drug
Trafficking and Related Offences. CICADs assistance to the Caribbean has
included communications support for national drug enforcement agencies; the strengthening
of national drug prevention committees; the design of shared documentation systems for the
control of commercial firearms cargo; and technical assistance. This has been of
substantial help in assisting small island states to try to cope with the illicit traffic
in firearms and the associated drug traffic.
3. Natural Disasters
Natural disasters and environmental degradation pose a severe and
ongoing threat to the security of small island states in the Caribbean. In these
countries, economic progress can very easily be disrupted because of the region's
susceptibility to natural disasters such as hurricanes. In fact, because of the very small
size of these countries, when there is a natural disaster it is not confined to one part
of the country but affects the entire country. In countries with large land areas such as
the United States it is unlikely that a natural disaster would affect the entire country,
but in the small island states a natural disaster like a hurricane affects every aspect of
life, and damages every part of the country. Most countries lack the economic diversity
and the level of development which is necessary to enable them to withstand and to respond
quickly to natural disasters. In addition, several important economic activities such as
tourism rely on the quality of the environment. Therefore, any developments which affect
the environment including in the coastal waters, affect the economic viability of these
countries. Infrastructural damage occasioned by hurricanes has had a major impact on
tourism and agriculture as well as other foreign exchange earning sectors.
These require substantial repair and reinvestment to bring them back
into operation. Indeed, a substantial portion of GDP is lost each year in small island
states because of the effects of natural disasters on the physical capital country and on
economic activity in these countries. There have been several recent examples of
devastation wreaked by hurricanes in the region, particularly recently in the Eastern
Caribbean. There are still countries which are trying to recover from the impact of
hurricanes. It seems too that hurricanes are becoming more frequent and that certainly
this hurricane season indicates that not only the regularity is increasing but the
severity of these hurricanes seems to be intensifying and therefore this is a problem we
are going to have to deal with in the long term.
The damage to Jamaica from Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 amounted to about
33% of GDP; to Antigua from Luis and Marilyn in 1995, to about 66% GDP; to Monserrat of
Hugo in 1989, to about 500% of GDP. In comparison, the damage to the United States from
Hurricane Andrew in 1992, while much larger in absolute amount, amounted to only 0.2% of
GDP.
In this regard, OAS action has contributed to handling these disasters
in the short term but also trying to build a capability to achieve sustained development
in the long run, in particular, the Unit for Sustainable Development which has undertaken
projects in the areas of disaster mitigation and preparedness; programmes for Caribbean
coastal zone management designed to strengthen institutional capacity to maintain these
valuable natural resources; and a plan for adaptation to global climate changes, in
cooperation with the Global Environment Fund.
4. Shipment of Hazardous Waste
May I now turn to a question which has troubled the Caribbean island
states to a great extent in recent times which is potential disasters not of a natural
kind, made and occurring from the actions of other countries, sometimes countries outside
of this hemisphere, and I refer here to the shipment of nuclear and hazardous wastes
through the Caribbean Sea. This is an issue which requires urgent and immediate attention.
The fragile ecosystems of the Caribbean region are threatened by the passage of such
dangerous shipments. There is a need for cooperative action to preserve the natural
environment of the Caribbean and this was recognized as I cited earlier in AG/RES 1567
which calls on member states to engage in discussions to develop a cooperative programme
to address maritime and air transport of nuclear and other hazardous wastes and to work
with relevant international bodies to strengthen or develop standards governing the
shipment of such goods and their safety. My delegation notes with satisfaction that the
first step towards this will be taken at the Transport Ministers Meeting in New Orleans in
December. Indeed, it was the delegations of the small island states who brought this to
the attention of the Ministers and it will be fully discussed in that agenda.
5. Economic Vulnerability
The economic aspects of security of small island states has not
received sufficient attention. It is difficult to maintain stable democratic governance if
the majority of the population of these societies are experiencing extreme poverty.
Poverty is associated with underdevelopment or inadequate development. Economic
development is a foundation for long term social and political stability and is a basis
for minimizing the threats to democratic governance, because it discourages involvement in
the illicit drug and arms trafficking. It is also a basis for the development of these
societies in a way which is conducive to sustainable development, i.e., development which
does not harm the long term prospects of these countries.
Size is a major additional constraint to economic development, although
it has been fashionable in some circles to dismiss size and to argue that whatever a large
country can do a small country should be able to do even more easily because with fewer
players, it is easier to organize. This is not a valid notion. Size affects development
because small economies have certain characteristics, such as a high degree of openness,
limited diversity in economic activity, export-concentration on one to three products,
significant dependency on trade taxes, and small size of firms:
5.1. Smaller economies are characterized by a high degree of openness, that is,
external transactions are large in relation to total economic activity. Smaller economies
tend to rely heavily on external trade as a means of overcoming their inherent scale
limitations, i.e., a narrow range of resources and an inability to support certain types
of production given the small scale of the market. Economic openness is measured by
imports and exports of goods and services as a percentage of gross domestic product
[(X+M)/GDP]. This measure indicates the proportion of the economy that is involved in
external trade.
5.2. The limited range of economic activity in small economies is reflected in
concentration on one to three exports, accompanied by a relatively high reliance on
primary commodities. As shown in Table 6, most of the economies that exhibit the
characteristics of small economies in Table 4 are relatively undiversified in terms of
their exports. Furthermore, over one-quarter of their total exports are concentrated on
one or two products. In extreme cases, one primary product export accounts for nearly all
of exports, e.g., in 1991, bananas accounted for 92% of total exports in Dominica and 87%
in St. Lucia. The predicament is compounded by the fact that banana exports depended
almost entirely on a single market. Britain absorbed 80% of Dominicas bananas in
1992 and 90% of St. Lucias exports in the same year.
5.3. Smaller economies, which lack economic diversity, tend to have a high
dependence on trade taxes as a percent of government revenue. Larger economies, as
measured by population size, tend to rely more heavily on income taxes rather than on
trade taxes (such as customs duties). This pattern is not related to income levels. Those
countries that are small in population, land, and GDP, and which depend heavily on
external trade, also rely heavily on external trade taxes for government revenue. There is
a relatively strong correspondence between the countries that could be considered small
and a high reliance on revenues from import duties. All of the island states, with the
exception of Barbados, St. Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago, obtain more than 20 percent of
their government revenues from trade taxes. Trade taxes account for more than one-half of
government revenue in St. Lucia and the Bahamas, and over 1/3 of government revenue of the
Dominican Republic.
5.4. It is firms, not countries, which conduct international trade and trade
investment. Nationally owned firms from small countries are small both by global standards
and by comparison with firms in large economies and multinational corporations owned by or
based in large countries. Except for a few sectors where economies of scale are not a
significant factor, size makes a significant difference in a firms ability to
survive and compete in the global marketplace. Small firms are at a disadvantage because
they cannot realize economies of scale, are not attractive joint venture partners and
cannot spend significant funds on marketing, market intelligence, and research and
development. There are huge differences between the top 20 companies in the United States
and the top 20 companies in the English-speaking Caribbean. Wal-Mart, the largest employer
in the United States, has a staff complement of 675,000 compared (see table 8) to the
Caribbeans top employer, Lascelles Demercado (Jamaica), which employs 6,800. Total
sales of General Motors is 328 times larger than that of Neal and Massey (Trinidad and
Tobago).
Intervention by Ambassador Lionel A. Hurst
Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the OAS
Mr. Chairman, I wish to make reference to AG/RES. 1567 (XXVIII-O/98),
which formed the basis of the discussion this morning and I would like to focus on three
of the paragraphs of that resolution which received attention. I would like merely to
provide some additional information to be included in the remarks that were heremade. I
would propose to look at paragraphs 5, 8 and 9.
Paragraph 5 focuses upon instructing the General Secretariat to
strengthen programmes of cooperation for the prevention and mitigation of the effects of
natural disasters. Earlier when we touched on Hurricane Mitch in Central America and its
impact I believe that we had come to the conclusion that hurricanes and other natural
disasters, other natural phenomena, pose a special threat to the security of small states
and you yourself, Mr. Chairman, expanded on this theme. We would just wish to note that
when Hurricane Georges struck Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, the Dominican
Republic, Haiti, several gulf cities of the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin
Islands, that FONDEM, an institution of the OAS, responded by providing a small quantity
of resources but, nevertheless, a very useful number of dollars were put to immediate use
in providing such emergency relief supplies as tarpaulin and bottled water in Antigua and
Barbuda. For that we are extremely thankful.
We wish to point out that FONDEM in fact requires a more permanent
source of funding so that when disasters of the magnitude as we have seen in Central
America strike, and in our view they are going to strike again and again, FONDEM will not
have to scramble, as it were, to find the resources to assist these countries in their
emergency relief efforts. We believe that a budgetary allocation annually would be very
useful in making FONDEM an institution within the OAS that can respond effectively and
immediately following a disaster. In order to do that there would have to be some
budgetary allocation which could be reviewed annually whenever the OAS budget is being
debated. As you know, the budget process is moving ahead at this moment since our Special
General Assembly is only 10 or so days away. Our hope is that for the 2000 budget, we can
in fact get the support of member states to include an amount that would reflect our
commitment to the recovery of member states when hit by natural disasters.
On paragraph 8 which specifically urges member states to cooperate with
the small island states in the eradication of transnational criminal activity, I am
pleased to report that in fact the meeting which I attended in Honduras was the meeting of
CICAD, the Inter-American Commission Against Drug Abuse and Control, and we were at that
meeting working on what is known as the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM) which was
mentioned by the General Secretariat's Coordinator for Hemispheric Security Affairs. The
MEM is an extremely complex mechanism which is being developed by member states. It is
intended to be an alternative to the unilateral certification and decertification
mechanism employed presently by one of our member states. But it is not quite like an exam
grade or anything of the sort; in fact, our hope is that it will be so full of information
each year, or whenever it published, that the information itself would be so rich that one
could conclude that member states are in fact attacking the problem of drug trafficking in
a meaningful manner. This MEM will include, for example, the quantities of drugs seized;
the number of persons arrested; the number of illicit arms captured; the number of plants
that have been eradicated; the alternative development schemes implemented by member
states, and so forth.
In that regard, we would wish to report that on the 19th of October,
Antigua and Barbuda passed into law, -our parliament passed into law, -an amendment to our
International Business Corporations Act, having to do with offshore banking and squeezing
out of our offshore banking system the criminal element, money launderers and the like. As
you know, Mr. Chairman, up until 1972, Antigua and Barbuda had for more than 300 years
produced sugar and in 1972 we abandoned this activity because it could not attract capital
nor was it very profitable; in fact, it could not attract capital because it was not very
profitable. We turned almost exclusively to tourism. Since 1972 we have seen more than a
fourfold increase in the incomes of Antiguans and Barbudans and in fact had long decided
that tourism would be the industry of the future. In the past ten years, however, Antigua
and Barbuda has experienced three horrible hurricanes, to which we made reference this
morning, and the harm which these hurricanes caused to our emerging economy. We have
decided that to diversify away from tourism is in the best interest of Antigua and
Barbuda. We have made a conscious decision to move to the same industry which has made
Switzerland, Luxembourg, Lichestein, Andorra and other small countries in Europe extremely
wealthy; we are talking about offering offshore financial services. We recognize that
there is a threat to honest business being attracted to offshore financial services when
the criminal element attempts to utilize the same machinery and so Antigua and Barbuda's
laws are now more stringent in ways that will squeeze the criminal element out of our
offshore banking business.
But the evolution of our economy from sugar to tourism and to offshore
financial services is a direct result of an increasingly hostile world. Hostile insofar as
climate change is concerned and the contribution of states to the climate change
phenomenon by their continued use, in such massive quantities, of products which produce
carbon dioxide and thus cloud our atmosphere; hostile in the manner in which small states
are relegated to the sidelines even moreso as a result of their smallness. So we are
seeking ways to strengthen our economy and to strengthen our ability to respond
effectively, and ensure thereby, the security for which all states yearn. So we believe
that paragraph 8 of this resolution in fact has gone some way to making Antigua and
Barbuda a much more secure place than it was when the General Assembly convened in Caracas
this past June.
The third paragraph, paragraph 9, which instructs the Secretary General
to cooperate within allocated resources, with the small states, through the University of
the West Indies, to advance the examination of the special security concerns, we think has
also been somewhat achieved. We do not believe it is complete, but we believe that we are
beginning to see some movement. We would like to make mention of the decision of the
Inter-American Council for Integral Development through the CENPES to fund a project that
will in fact allow the University of the West Indies to become involved in the discussion
of the security-policy decision-making on the part of the small states. I believe the
contribution of the CIDI will be somewhere in the region of $65,000, while the
contribution of the University of the West Indies will be matched and/or exceeded by its
member states.
Now once again, Mr. Chairman, we would like to take the opportunity to
talk just a little bit about the University of the West Indies. It is not only 50 years
old this year, but the University of the West Indies is, as you well know, Mr. Chairman,
having graduated therefrom, a special creation of the English-speaking countries in the
Caribbean with the exception of the United States Virgin Islands. Every English speaking
member of the Caribbean country has a fixed number of seats allocated to it in the
university, with additional seats allowed on a competitive basis. It has served our needs
well. But it is of course a very small institution with no more than 18,000 students. This
is not nearly enough to create the kind of economic machine which the small island states
in the Caribbean require. For example, Singapore, which has the identical population size
as Jamaica of about two-and-half million, has more than 75,000 engineering students alone
in its university, and this has nothing to do with students studying other disciplines.
There we are with about 5 million people all told in the English speaking Caribbean, and
our University can provide no more than about 18,000 seats in total. You can see the limit
which is placed on our institution to deliver the kind of intellectual capacity which will
be required in the 21st century. Taking this into account, and knowing that the University
needs the assistance of multilateral institutions in providing the kind of leadership
which will be demanded in the 21st century, we believe that this particular project will
in fact begin to deliver some of the necessary thinking which needs to go into the special
security concerns of small island states. This project achieves this end.
So I thought Mr. Chairman, that paragraphs 5, 8 and 9 could serve as a
supplement to what has been reported here this morning and, with your permission, I have
taken the opportunity to add to what has been said.
I thank you very much for the opportunity; I thank member states for
placing this item on the agenda and I thank you for your leadership on this very troubling
question of the security concerns of small island states. Thank you Mr. Chairman.
1. Presidida pelo Embaixador Richard Bernal,
Representante Permanente da Jamaica junto à OEA, Primeiro Vice-Presidente da Comissão de
Segurança Hemisférica.
2. CP/doc.2990/97.
3. Ver Anexo.
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