A/37/PV.35 General Assembly

The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Lebanese Republic, His Excellency Sheikh Amin Gemayel, whom, on behalf of the General Assembly, I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations and invite to address the Assembly. 2. Mr. GEMAYEL (Lebanon): To address the Assembly is a unique privilege. I, feel particularly honoured to stand here before you at this rostrum from which so many other Presidents of nations great and small have expressed ihe asp:rations of their peoples and defended their cause. Allow me, Mr. President, while thanking you and the representatives here present, to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your election. 3. May I also address my congratulations to the Secre~ary-General on hi~ first report on the work of the Organization [A/37/11 submitted to the Assembly, a report in which the cause of peace is served by wisdom and intellectual honesty. 4. The fate of my country has often been debated here and expressions of sympathy and friendship have not gone unnoticed by the Lebanese. I come to the Assembly today with a message ofconfidence from a nation with regained strength and determination, a nation active again, l1mt in war, but in a darifig adventure of peace and reconstruction. I appreciate more the meaning of peace and" give it the priority it deserves because I, like my compatriots, know the sutTerings of war and carried arms in defence ofa free, united and independent Lebanon. I address the As- sembly in the name of my people, in the spirit of a sharpene4 nation~C consensl;ls that.has.been developing throughout this war and which manifested itself strongly in the wake of the assassina~~on of President- elect Ba.shir Gemayel. 5. Lebanon can no longer endure the burdens of the tragic war that has been raging in our land for the past eight years. Nor can the world go on watching our destruct:on with morbid fascination. Prior to the war, Lebanon was a stable, peaceful and prosperous country. Beirut was the cultural and commercia~ centre of the Arab world. All of a sudden the democratic edifice that was Lebanon was shattered. Perhaps because Lebanon was too democratic, too free-and even lax-it became the stage for one of the bloodiest wars in recent times. The conflict of interests of third parties, the tension among States, the competing ideologies in the Arab world, the Palestinian armed NEW YORK and uncontrolled presence in our midst, the recurriu~ Israeli invasions of and incursions into our land, the continued violation ofoursovereignty and fundamental human rights all converged, fomenting a continuous state of war in Lebanon since 1975. The war claimed the lives of more than 100,000 citizens. It destroyed cities, towns and villages. It brought foreign troops into our land. It divided our people and converted Lebanon from a haven for culture and peace into an arena for terror and violence. 6. The war blurred many images. We could not, for example, tell who was the friend and who was the foe. All seemed to be bent on the destruction ofour peace- ful way of life. We feared that the war would lead either to partition or to ann~xation" Lebanon, which had been the link between East and West, became a source of danger tQ both, and in particular to the States of the Arab East. The problems and conflicts of the region that exploded on our land were more than the Lebanese could bear. Each foreign force claimed a divine right to interfere in our affairs and denied us ttwe right to speak for ourselves. And thus, by forces b~yond their control, the Lebanese were alienated from themselves. 7. We are now on the verge of a new era. A chapter of hope is unfolding before our eyes. The super- Powers and the regional Powers ~re recognizing the strategic importance of Lebanon for ~ace in the Middle East. The Lebanese themselves have learned a bitter lesson and are now more united th?n ever before. In the name of the Lebanese people, I want to tell the Assembly that we bave had enough; enough of bloodshed, enough of destruction, enough of dis- location and despair. We have paid the high price of war. We should not pay an additional price for peace. As a Member ofthe United Nations we want our rights to be restored to us. 8. Each country enjoys internal sovereignty; so should we. Each country depends on an effective army to defend its independence; so should we. 9. As we wish to live in peace and freedom in our land, so should the Palestinians live in peace and freedom and self-determination in their land, Palestine. As we cherish our independence, we cherish also the hope that Palestinians and Israelis, with the support of the world community, will reach a settlement that will allow them both to enjoy the fullness of rights. 10. As for relations between Lebanon and Syria, they have always been close in the past. It is natural, therefore, that Syria and Lebanon should develop strong relations in the future in the context vf inde- pendence, sovereignty and mutual respect. With this positiol! in mind, I call for the immediate and uncon- ditional withdrawal of all non-Lebanese forces from Lebanon. I call upon the world community to help A/37/PV.35 eQtail~., 12. We shall maintain our cultural plurality, but within a non-compromising political unity. Cultural diversity is to us inseparable from political oneness. We s}.all cultivate the pillars of national unity and build a new citizenry whose loyalities are clear, whose orientation is authentic. We shall rebuild what was destroyed and thus have Lebanon appear in your midst a few years from now, a phoenix rising victo- rious from its own ashes. 13. For all of this, for peace and stability in the Middle East, Lebanon needs your support. I have a clear vision of a future Lebanon, and the new Govern- ment, representing the en!ire Lebanese family, shares this v;sion with me. We start the adventure of peace and reconstruction with encouraging signs. We applaud all positive steps taken by our friends in the interna- tional community on behalf of a united and sovereign Lebanon, steps such as the United States initiative on Lebanon, which we shall explore to the fullest. We look to our Arab brothers for political and eco- nomic support in building a country which can be a source of pride, peace and progress for us and for them. 14. We have started the reconstruction process, and our free-enterprise system, which was responsible for much of Lebanon's prosperity, is now playing a leading part. We are clearing the rubble from our cities. We are building and repairing everywhere. We are rebuilding the army along national, equitable and rational lines, thus to assume full responsibility for the security of our homeland. Beirut has been re- unified and the Lebanese army, in co-ordination with troops from friendly countries, is maintaining peace there. We are working out plans for our army and internal security forces to a8sume authority in all