A/34/PV.6 General Assembly

9.  General debate I. Mr. MKAPA (United Republic of Tanzania): It is with great pleasure, and a modest measure ofpride, that I congratulate you, Sir, on behalf of the Tanzania dele- gation, upon your assumption ofthe high office ofPresi- dent of this General Assembly. Your special relation- ship with us needs no explanation. All we are left to do is to wish you great success and assure you ofour total co-operation in the honoured role in which you have been placed by the international community. I wish, at the same time, to express our thanks through you to the States Members of the United Nations. The United Republic of Tanzania sees in your election to the presi- dency of the General Assembly a mark of appreciation of its contribution to the endeavours of this world body to promote international peace, understanding and co- operation. We are certain that you will discharge your responsibilities with skill and distinction, and thus do credit to the African region and the non-aligned group of nations to which you and your country belong. 2. Your predecessor, Ambassador Lievano, distin- guished himself in office by his dedication, patient di- plomacy, fairness, courtesy and competence. We hope his record will be an inspiration to you, and we wish him continued success in the service of his great country, Colombia. 3, Allow me now to pay a tribute to the Secretary- General, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, who has had a very busy year. His untiring efforts in search of solutions to the complex problems ofthe world have taken him to many places around the world. I want to recall particularly his unfailing efforts to solve the problems of southern Af- rica. I also recall his fruitful attendance at the sixteenth ordinary session ofthe Assembly ofHeads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity [OAU] in July in the Liberian capital-Monrovia- where he made a comprehensive review of the state of the world today. By the dedication and constructive role Mr. Waldheim has charted for his office, the pres- Monday, 24 September 1979, at 3.05 p.m. NEW YORK tige and the hopes that we have in this world body have been very much enhanced. We wish him continued good health. 4. We learnt with deep shock of the untimely death, early this month, ofMr. Agostinho Neto, the President of the People's Republic of Angola. Mr. Neto and his countrymen have had a long association with my country and people, a relationship which deepened through Angola's armed struggle for independence. The association ripened in the post-independence years as, along with the other front-line States, we met, planned and worked together to discharge the duty entrusted to us by the OAU to act as a firm rear base for the armed struggle for the liberation ofsouthern Africa. With his passing, Africa has lost a great son, a great patriot, a great freedom fighter, a great revolutionary thinker and a great statesman. I ask the Angolan delega- tion to convey my delegation's heartfelt condolences to the family ofthe late President, to the MPLA I Workers Party, and to the Government and people of Angola. 5. Since the United Nations was founded over three decades ago, visible and significant success has been achieved III the process of decolonization. Tanzania salutes the invaluable contributions made by the United Nations in enhancing the cause of peace and the free- dom of millions of peoples from colonial domination and oppression, From the time the General Assembly adopted resolution 1514 (XV), 19 years ago, many countries including my own, have joined the ranks of free and'independent nations whose tribute to the United Nations is their presence in this chamber as equal Members. In this sessio~ we h~ve admitted t.o membership the new State ofSmut LUCia and I take thiS opportunity to congratulate that State and to welcome its representatives in our midst. 6. This Organization's decolol;1iza,tion agenda i~ .not yet finished; in fact, what remaills IS the m~st cntlc~ phase. In what is now almost an annual ntu~, thiS General Assembly will address itselfto the questIOns of Southern Rhodesia, Namibia, and South Africa, in con- formity with the various resolution,S of the.OAU, the non-aligned movement and the Umted NatIOns. Over the past year .we have ~~en a ,lot ~f m~vement l;lUt no basic change III the polItical sttuatlon III the region. 7. In Rhodesia, the illegal racist regime succeede~, through a constituti0t:Ial f~aud and a,n electoralfarce, In entrenching white mmonty rule WIth a ~ront of black faces. No Member State has be.en deceived by tJ:1ese manoeuvres, and we urge the m~nten~ce.of sanc~Ions against that regime, and the demal to It of International recognition. S. The new Government of the United Kingdom has I Movimento Popular de Liberta~iio de Angola, A/34/PV.6 9. We support the Commonwealth agreement on Rhodesia. We welcome the talks and believe that they can produce agreement on a genuinely democratic con- stitution and on the modalities offree and fair elections acceptable to the international community to put such a constitution into effect. Ian Smith, who is avowedly against majority rule, together with his black puppet Government, must not be allowed to stand in the way of an agreement. We stress the imperative, affirmed by the United Kingdom Government itself, that independence should not be given to Rhodesia by the United Kingdom on the basis of principles and conditions essentially different from those which applied at the accession of other fonner British colonial territories to independence. 10. The talks in London provide a last opportunity for a negotiated settlement. Should they fail to Jive up to the Lusaka agreement, there is only the alternative of war to the finish. And my country will support the Patriotic Front so that itcan intensify and win that war. I I. Namibia, which is a United Nations Territory, continues to be occupied illegally and with impunity by South Africa. South Africa has blocked the implemen- tation of Security Council resolution 435 (1978), thus dealing a contemptuous blow to the expectations of a settlement by peaceful means. Not only has South M- rica continued to defy the will of the international com- munity over Namibia, but it continues to use that Terri- tory to commit repeated aggression against neighbour- ing African States, killing and maiming thousands of defenceless refugees and engaging in the wanton de- struction of property. 12. The responsibility of the United Nations is clear: it, in its turn, must answer the challenge of South M- rica. The United Nations must reaffirm and demon- strate increased support for the South West Africa People's Organization [SWAPO], the sole and legiti- mate representative of the people of Namibia, which is committed to ending South African occupation. Sec- ondly, the United Nations now must impose sanctions against South Africa under Chapter VII of the Charter. Censure, in the circumstances, is not enough; it is in fact the same as condonation. 13. In South Africa itself the regime's enforcement of the policy of apartheid has become more vicious as it receives and develops more weapons of oppression against the majority African people. More Western investment flows into the country to provide the economic buttress of apartheid and the most vile sys- tem of oppression of man by man. Once again the United Nations must institute effective measures, in- cluding sanctions, to force South Africa to abandon apartheid. To stretch the Organization's tolerance further will do great damage to its credibility. 14. During its thirty-third session, the General As- sembly affirmed the inalienable right of the Saharan 15. We recall that Morocco once laid claim to the whole of Mauritania as part of its territory, refusing to recognize Mauritania's independence. But in the end it had to give up that claim. We hope that sooner, rath~r than lat'er, Morocco will be persuaded to accept the right of the people of Weste111 Sahara to self- determination and national independence. 16. We are at the end of the Disarmament Decade, as well as the Second United Nations Development Dec- ade. The General Assembly resolutions which declared the Disarmament Decade envisaged a relationship be- tween disarmament and development, anticipating that resources saved from the arms industry would be di- verted to social and economic development for the benefit of the population ofthe world. Today this objec- tive has not been achieved. Considerable human and material resources are tied up in armament pro- grammes, to the detriment ofdevelopment, particularly for the third world. 17. Only limited measures have been achieved in dis- armament, from the 1963 test ban Treaty3 to the current agreements reached within the framework of the sec- ond round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALI1. And sometimes one is constrained to wonder if these treaties do not set the rules for spurring the arms race, rather than stopping it. Nevertheless, they do give some encouragement, because they are a pointer to the fact that the will to negotiate, to reach a broad level of disarmament, is not lacking. 18. The developing countries have a vital interest in disarmament. They must be concerned about the ever- growing military complexes in the powerful countries in this world. Power rivalries have a habit of spilling over into the third world, causing local wars, tension be- tween small and poor nations, and the continual diver- sion ofscarce human and material resources to national defence. Therefore, the arms race among the big Pow- ers contributes to world-wide inflation and increased poverty in the third-world countries and militates against co-operation for development among them. My delegation therefore supports and renews the call for general and complete disarmament under international supervision. 19. As one of the littoral States of the Indian Ocean, my country notes with great concern that over the past , Frente Popular para In Liberaci6n de Saguia el-Hamra y de RCo de Oro. J Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere in Outer Space and under Water, signed in Moscow on 5 August 1963. 20. The Cyprus stalemate persists, at the cost ofgreat human suffering. We urge the parties concerned to give momentum to the initiative taken earlier this year by our Secretary-General, Mr. Waldheim, so that a politi- cal settlement may be achieved, based on the indepen- dence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and non- alignment of the Republic of Cyprus. 21. In the Middle East peace remains as elusive as it was at the time of our last session. My delegation be- lieves and supports the view that peace cannot obtain in this region while two gross injustices are allowed to continue and to become entrenched. One is the denial to the Palestinian people ofthe right to a homeland and State ofits own; the other is the occupation by Israel of Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian land. We support the ri~ht of the Palestinian people, led by the Palestinian LIberation Organization, to have a State of their own; we support the right of Egypt, Syria and Jordan to use all appropriate means to recover their territory; and we energetically condemn Israel's murderous military at- tacks on Lebanon. 22. To come nearer our own country: we consider that the island ofMayotte is part of the Republic of the Comoros and support that country's aspiration to main- tain its political unity and territorial integrity. 23. My delegation notes that Korea remains divided. We appreciate the Korean people's desire for peaceful reunification. We hope that this goal will be achieved, without foreign interference, on the basis of indepen- dence, peaceful reunification and a greater national unity. 24. Mr. President, we would like to echo the ringing appeal you made in your inaugural address [Ist meet- ing). on the plight of refugees around the world. Ref- ugees represent a global humanitarian problem which demands the attention of this Organization. In Africa alone we have more than 4 million refugees, who have to find resettlement in other Mrican countries, which already find it difficult to maintain a decent standard of living for their own populations. It will be seen that the world has so far paid only scant attention, in teffils of the input of resources, to resettling African refugees, some of whom are victims of oppression and of the suppression which is visited upon them by the minority raCIst regimes in southern Mrica. We therefore support the creation ofa specialfund for refugees andcommend all steps now being taken to alleviate the human tragedy that is taking place in South-East Asia. We hope that, as a result of the lessons of this tragedy, equal attention will be paid now and in the future to the problems of refugees in other parts of the world. 25. The world economy is in the throes of the most severe crisis in history. Inflation, unemployment, cur- rency fluctuations and instability in the international commodity trade have now become commonplace. 27. Some developed countries, individually and col- lectively, have over the past few years adopted and implemented some measures aimed at insulating them from the impact of the world economic crisis. These measures have not only failed, but they have also ag- gravated the economic problems of the developing countries which have had to bear the cost ofthe adjust- ment measures adopted by those developed countries. For example, we have seen the proliferation of pro- tectionist measures adopted by certain developed countries which then apply them to the imports ofboth primary and processed goods from the developing countnes. These measures have produced serious con- straints on both the agricultural and industrial develop- ment efforts of the developing countries and have led to further deterioration in their tenns of trade. 28. The failure of these isolated, self-seeking and piecemeal measures confirms our conviction that the economic problems which continue to haunt the world stem largely from the incompatibility between the ex- isting international economic system designed for the colonial era, and the new realities of today's world of interderendence. These are not problems of a mere cyclica nature; they are clearly rather of a structural nature. Mankind can only be rescued from further economic disruption and political conflict through the fundamental restructuring ofeconomic relations among nations and the establishment ofa new equitable inter- national economic order. 29. Unfortunately movement in this direction is not spirited and there are those who think that time is an unfailing catalyst of economic regeneration. In the ongoing negotiations for the establishment of a New International Economic Order, too much time has been spent in restating the problems and too few concrete decisions have been taken. This gap between words and deeds is a manifestation of the lack of political will in some developed countries. 30. At the fifth session of UNCTAD in Manila a new programme ofaction for the least developed countries4 was launched but, sadly, agreement could not be reached on some of the major issues which constitute the foundation upon which the programme could be successfully built. These include market access for the manufactured goods ofdeveloping countries, refonn of the international monetary system, the establishment of a compensatory financing facility to meet shortfalls in the export earnings the developing countries derive 4 See Proceedl~J:.sa/the United Natlolls Coriference on Trade and Development, Fifth Session, vol. I, Report and Annexes (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.79.II.D.14), part one A, resolution 122' (V). 31. We are therefore approaching the end of the Sec- ond United Nations Development Decade with no room for complacency. With a filII load of resolutions by this Assembly and other United Nations organs largely unimplemented, the backlog of action that will be carried over to the third development decade is extremely heavy. Nations and Governments should be required to renew their dedication and commitment, but above all there will be a need for the political will to translate the various decisions into a time-table ofcon- crete action. My delegation wishes to express the hope that the third development decade will be more dynamic and that greater political commitment will emerge among Member States in the search for a more balanced world economy and greater prospects for real development in poor countries. 32. Both at the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77, held at Arusha from 6 to 16 February this year, and at the recently concluded Conferenceof non- aligned countries,s co-operation among developing countries within the framework of national and collec- tive self-reliance was strongly emphasized. We urge both the United Nations development system and the developed countries to give full support and assistance to the developing countries, so that they may strengthen and expand their mutual co-operation, 33. The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea is a decisive test of the spirit of meaningful dialogue between the North and the South. Sea-bed resources declared to be the common heritage of man- kind by this Assembly touch the very core of world peace and equity. The joint management of sea-bed reso.urces should have as ~ts primary objective the pro- motIon of equal opportumty to acquire sea wealth and should be seen to have the effect ofredistributing global ~ealth. The progress made thus far at the negotiations III Ger:tev:a and ~n parti~ular the unanimity reached in e~tabhshmg an IOternatlOnal sea-bed authority should gIve al,l of us cau.se for sati~faction, despite the crucial operatIOnal details that stIll remain outstanding. We also trust that the Conference will respect the August 1980 deadline for concluding the negotiations. 34.. The ~e~r 1979 is the International Year of the ChIld, and It IS now resolutely drawing to a close. I wish to commend all the Member States which have striven to make the y,ear a suc~ess. I wish also to commend UNI~E.F:, which w~s given the onerous but joyful re- spons.lbIllty off,?cusmg upon and promoting the welfare ~f chIldren. .It IS my hope that member nations will !ncrease.their contnbutions to UNICEF, so that the lO~erest In and concern for the rights of the child so Widely generated in this Year, may be promulgated by pe!IDanent programmes for t~e development of the chIld. Ifwe are to save succeedmg generations from the scourge of ~ar as t~e Charter enjoins us, we cannot do better than mvest m our youth. : Sixth Conf~rence of Heads of State or Govenunent of Non- Ahgned Countnes, held at Havana from 3 to 9 September 1979. 36. M~. HAMEED (Sri Lanka): I should like to begin by offen~gmy congratulations and felicitations to you, Mr. ~resldent, o~ behalf of my delegation, on your electIOn to the hIgh office of President of the thirty. fourth session of the United Nations General Assem- bly. Our two countries, Mr. President, share a common historical tradition, although we inhabit different conti- nents. Together, our nations have contributed to the growth of African-Asian solidarity, on which the structure of the non-aligned movement was built. We are fellow-members of the Commonwealth. More inti- m~tely, w~ hav7had occa.sion to appreciate your sense ?f IOternatJonallsm, your Judgement and your unflinch- 109 c~m~ltment to the cause of peace and harmony, both m thiS august Assembly and In the working bodies of the n,?n-aligne~ m?vement. We are aware of your outstandmg contnbutlOn to the success of the Special Comm~ttee on the Situati/;ln with regard to the Imple- mentatIon of the DeclaratIOn on the Granting of Inde- pendence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and we are confident that you will bring the same skills and dedica- tion to bear on the proceedings of the General Assem- bly, Your election as President at a comparatively early age adds to the distinction. 3?- . All.ow me to pay a tribute as well to my friend and dlstmgUlshed colleague, our outgoing President. I need hardly recall that he presided over the work of the G~neral A~seI?bly at a trying. period in the history of thIS OrganizatIOn. He acted With firmness and fairness contributing decisively and effectively to the conductof the thirty-third session of the General Assembly. Our gratitude is due to him and is offered in full measure. 38. Previous speakers have commented on the con- til1;ued assistance the international community has re- ceived from our Secretary-General. Let me reinforce those comments, on behalf of my Government and m~s.elf. Mr. Waldheim's erudition, his willingness and ablht¥ to hold the balance betwe~n contending parties and hiS calmness under the most difficult circumstances are widely recognized. We admire and appreciate his efforts to strengthen the role of the United Nations in world affairs and we pledge our continued co- operation. . 39, It is with pleasure and pride, too, that Sri Lanka ~elcomes Saint Lucia as a Member of this Organiza- t!on. The growth of the membership of this Organiza- tIon unde~scores its univ~rsa1ity, whi~h is an objective set forth In the Charter Itself and WIthout which the authority and effectiveness of our Organization would be seriously eroded. 40. Those ofus who make the annual pilgrimage to the 41. My comments should not be mistaken for carping criticism. I speak as a fervent believer in the United Nations as one who is convinced that, at this time in the hist~ry of mankind, if the United Nations did not exist we would very soon be going about the task of setting it up. I speak, moreover, as the Foreign Minister ofa country whose foreign policy has consistently em- phasized the need to respect, strengthen, and work within the ambit of, the United Nations. 42. I make my comments in this spirit. I make my comments in the hope that the full potential of the United Nations can be realized within our lifetime.......in the various aspects of human effort that add up to the sum total of human life. The political, social and economic aspects of human life are all part of our Or- ganization's responsibilities, and they all deserve equal attention. They require attention, moreover, inapracti- cal down-to-earth manner, devoid ofpolemics, rhetoric and sterile theorizing. 43. As representatives here are aware, it was Sri Lanka's pnde and privilege to be the Chairman of the non-aligned movement for the last three years-an office that we handed over to the Republic ofCuba only two weeks ago. During the three years of our steward- ship, the movement faced many challenges, and some of those challenges threatened the very foundation of the movement, but Sri Lanka is proud thatwe were able to keep the unity of the movement intact in the face of serious bilateral disputes that arose within the membership. 44. When Sri Lanka assumed the chairmanship in 1976 there were 86 members, and on the threshold of our handing over the movement after three years the . membership had grown to 96. This is also a paradox, because every time we met the prophets of doom pre- dicted that it would be the last time we would be meet- ing. Today, the movement is a dynamic factor in the conduct of international affairs. It has become the un- challenged, the uncontested and the unquestioned offi- cial spokesman of the people of the third world. We are happy to report to this Assembly, two-thirds of whose membership is drawn from the non-aligned movement, that Sri Lanka has been able to uphold that sacred trust deposited with us by the membership ofthe movement and to hand it over at the expiration ofour office, as my President, His Excellency J. R. Jayewardene, the out- goin~ Chairman, said in his address at Havana, "un- tarrushed and undiluted". 45. We wish to take this opportunity to thank all for the support that had been rendered us to ensure that Sri 46. During the past two and a half years, it has been my privilege as Chairman of the Conference of Ministers for Foreign Affairs ofNon-Aligned Countries to visit many countries and to discuss international affairs and international strategy with a wide range of the world's political leadership. The overriding impres- sion I have gathered during those discussions and in- quiries is that of an international paradox, the coexist- ence of hope and despair; achievement and stagnation; precept and reluctance to practice it. The result is a feeling of disharrnony-a sense of unfulfilled obliga- tion, of unfulfilled expectation. This is true of almost any aspect of human endeavour in our times. 47. For instance, ours is widely described as the sci- entific age, an age in which the wonders ofscience and its handmaiden, technology, are considered capable of solving almost any given human problem. Unfortu- nately, however, the advantages ofthe scientificageare not universally felt, as speakers at the United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Develop- ment, held at Vienna from 20 to 31 August, rightly pointed out. The result is a paradoxical mixture of success and failure, of imbalance side by side with ~rowth. Man glories in his conquest ofouter space, and III the excitement of successful journeys to the moon. Today's medical technology enables a medical techni- cian to complete simultaneous tests on a single sample of blood. Building technology has progressed to the point where a prefabricated apartment can be assem- bled in slightly over 30 minutes. New strains ofmiracle cereal have produced undreamed-of increases in the world's food production. 48. Yet the numbers ofhuman beings who are hungry I malnourished, inadequately housed and poor are counted not in hundreds or in thousands, but in mil- lions. Even more paradoxical, the very societies that nurture millionaires, fast cars, streamlined hospitals and opulent housing are at the same time the scene of sky-scraping living costs, galloping inflation and explo- sive unemployment. Forget the labels ofthe North and the South, forget the labels ofEast and West. Thestark fact is that within whatever form of society one may live, the wonders and successes of the scientific age leave large segments of the population untouched. 49. In political terms, ours is considered the age of decolonization, and rightly so. In the nineteenth century, the greater part ofthe world's land mass and of its peoples was drawn into the fold of imperial hegemony. That was the extent ofcolonialism in formal tenus, with unequal treaties signed and large areas of patrimony ceded. In less fonnal arrangements, where colonial power was exercised wi~hou~ a pe~ent co- lonial presence, the extent of subjugatIOn was Wider and deeper. A scholar has calculated that on the eve of the Second World War some 80 per cent of the world's land mass and 75 per cent of the world's population was in one way or another actually under the control of colo- nial Powers. Let us not quibble over figures. The facts of the colonial period are too much a part of history to need debate. In the same way, the facts of decoloniza- tion are beyond dispute. S1. In our times there cannot be, and shou!d not be, one man unfree or one inch of land occupied by an aggressor or colonial Power. whether in the Middle East in southern Africa or in any other part of the world. Quenchin~ th~ thirst for freed.om is more e.sse.n- tial and more satlsfymg than acceptmg some artificial form of order superimpos.~d by t~e m\~t of ~ distant metropolitan Power. And It today s ~ol1tlcaLIy I~depen­ dent nation-States find themselves m economIC disar- ray, that, too, is partly t.he result of an!Jther i~tef!la· tional paradox: the surVival of economic dommatlOn despite their political freedom. 52. These paradoxes can be viewed from an e~oteric perspective, provid~ng hour~ ~d d~ys ,!f delight to academics and pundIts who plle !Ibranes h~gh.and deep with sophisticated but unfeeling descnptlons and analyses of the human condition. They can, on the other hand be set against a background of political confrontati~n or to put it differently, in a perspective of "we" and' "they". Neither approach is ~elpful. There is a third option, however: th;at of seemg t~e situation in human terms and attemptmg to remedy It, also in human telms. My appeal to representatives to- day is that all of us accept the third option and strive relentlessly to improve the hum~n condition and not just reduce it to a jumble of platItudes. 53. This is particularly applicable at a time ~hen the North and the South do not seem to know preCisely how to get moving again in t~eir ,faltering ~fforts at together- ness. The reason for thiS dIffidence IS understandab\e. A common struggle is simpler to mount when a diS- cernible common enemy can be identified, attacked and eliminated. The campai~n is more difficult when the enemy cannot easily be Identified. Who, for instance, can draw a route map leading straight to the source of monetary imbalance'? In fact, the enemy we f~ce today is not a single enemy..There a~e several enemle~: want, hunger, disease, enmity, environmental pollution. un- employment, the was~e of.precious re~ources .on de- structive armaments, mflatron-all lurkmg behInd t~e fact ofintemational paradox. And, Just a~ t~~ enem~ IS manifold, so too are the results of Its actiVitIes, which strike rich and poor nations alike. 54. There is a certain pessimism in the air ab<,Jut the inability of the world community to resolve disputes that have now become almost a permanent feat!Jff: of international life. I do not fully share that peSSimism because [ believe that in our times we must find solu- tions to these issues. When I say that, I am not unmind- ful of the conflicts and confrontations that seem to surface day by day. There is a fresh wave of ':l0rest, suspicion and tension sweeping across the contments. Borders and boundaries seem to pose a challenge to