Assembly expresses 'firmest support' for peace plan for Central America; special plan of co-operation to be ready in April 1988.

Assembly expresses 'firmest support' for peace plan for Central America

Special plan of co-operation to be ready in April 1988

In its first political action, the forty-second General Assembly expressed its "firmest support" for the Guatemala Agreement for the establishment of peace in Central America. The Presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua -- who signed the Agreement on 7 August 1987 -- were called on to continue their efforts to achieve a firm and lasting peace in the region.

The Assembly adopted resolution 42/1 without a vote on 7 October, urging the international community to increase technical, economic and financial assistance to the Central American countries. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar was asked to prepare a special plan of economic action and co-operation for the region in support of the ongoing peace process, to be submitted to the General Assembly by 30 April 1988.

In the text, the Assembly stated its conviction that the peoples of Central America "wish to achieve peace, reconciliation, development and justice, without outside interference, in accordance with their own decision and their own historical experience, and without sacrificing the principles of self-determination and non-intervention".

The Guatemala Agreement, an initiative of President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica who won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his effort, "is the outcome of the decision by the Central Americans to take up fully the historical challenge of forging a peaceful destiny for Central America", the Assembly said.

'Tired of struggle, worn down by suffering'

Costa Rica, in introducing the text on behalf of its sponsors, the Central American countries and the Contadora and Support Groups, said: "Our peoples, tired of struggle and worn down by suffering, hope that the United Nations will today be a source of encouragement for the road ahead and a source of support in the days to come". In Central America it was now "a matter not of losses on the battlefield, but of reopening collective means of communication, negotiation and cease-fire; and one can see the reality of this change".

The United States called on Nicaragua to emulate El Salvador and initiate an open dialogue with its armed opposition, rather than trying to impose its will solely through unilateral action.

Nicaragua said it hoped the United States would stop its "acts of aggression and the financing of forces against our country", as...