A/40/PV.18 General Assembly
The Assembly will now hear
an address ~ the President of Democratic Kampuchea.
His Royal Highness Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, President of Democratic
K&~~uchea was escorted into the General Assa~bl Hallo
On behalf of the General
ASS~dbly, I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations General Assembly His
Royal Highness Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, President of Democratic Kampuchea, and to
invite him to address the General Assembly.
President Norodom SIHANOUK (interpretation from French): May I be
permitted, on behalf of the Khmer people and the Coalition Government of Democratic
Kampuchea, and on my own behalf, to express my most cordial salutations and
heartfelt thanks to the heads of delegaticns and the representatives who honour
this session with their presence, and thus give evidence of their faith in the most
noble ideals of the United Nations: the ideals o~ justice, peace, freedom and
support for oppressed peoples and victims of injustice.
Mr. President, it i~ with great satisfaction that my delegation welcomes your
unanimous election to the presidency of the fortieth session of our General
Assembly. The choice made by all our colleagues is a tribute to your outstanding
personality, which c~~nds general respect, and to the sustained activities of
Spain, its Sovereign and ita people on behalf of peace, justice and democracy.
While recalling with pleasure that Cambodia and Spain became Members of the
United Nations the same year, 1955, we are confident that, thanks to your long
experience, wisdom and skill and to your well-known commitment to our ~orld
organization and its Charter, our session, on the occasion of the fortieth
anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, will give a positive response to
the hopes of tile international community and hasten solutions to the vital issues
of peace, security and justice facing our world.
On behalf of my e2legation, I wish to pay a warm tribute to Mr. Paul Lusaka,
who conducted our work at the previous session with wisdom and distinction and
prepared the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations.
I wish also to reaffirm our deep esteem and great appreciation for our
Secretary-General, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, for his outstanding activities and
initiatives in order to bring about the United Nations contribution to easing
tensions and maintaining peace and security in the world. His visit to South-East
Asia earlier this year in order to explore ways and means of bringing about the
implementation of the just United Nations resolutions testifies to his steady
efforts, his impartiality and his courage in discharging his lofty
responsibilities. His annual reports and the talks which I have had the pleasure
of holding with him have all been a source of encouragement for me. Our
Secretary-General is a credit to the United Nations for his personal commitment in
the search for international peace and security, co-operation and understanding
between all the peoples of the world.
Lastly, I should like to pay a ringing tribute to our Organization as it nears
the glorious day of its fortieth anniversary. The United Nations is irreplaceable,
for it is the conscience of the civilized world. It is the only gathering in the
world where all Powers, whatever their size, can sit as full Members, air their
views freely, make suggestions, lodge complaints and voice fears to the
international community and appeal to it whenever they deem their freedom, or even
their existence, to be threatened.
The United Nations is a prestigious forum in which there are always those
ready to uphold justice. Resolutions adopted by it, even when it does not have the
material means of implement~ng them, have almost world-wide moral significance
which nobody would challenge lightly. Witness the more or less honourable or
subtle manoeuvres carried out by the antagonists in an attempt to save face.
The United Nations remains the ultimate hope of oppressed peoples. More than
once, by dint of patience, perseverance and wisdom, it has changed the course of
history. It goes without saying that we whole-heartedly desire it to succeed in
t~e case of our unfortunate Kampuchea, attacked, invaded and more than
half-colonized by a much more powerful imperialist neighbour.
The United Nations, which had 51 Members when it was founded in 1945, had
159 Members last year - a figure that will surely be exceeded in the years to
come. We can thus rightly speak of the universality of our Organization - and I
shall just recall that Cambodia has been a member since 1955, and Viet Nam since
1977.
On 31 May last year, the Secretary-General made the following statement:
"To me, the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations provides a further
occasion to encourage a rededication by Member States to the principles
and purposes of the Charter•••
"...
Last, but not least, may I express the fervent hope that every effort
will be made to have the year 1985 stand out laUdably as a year of peace,
conflict resolution, restraint, international co-operation and friendship
among nations. This would be the way of transforming an anniversary into a
celebration.
n
,
"I refer here above all to the frightening course taken by the arms race,
as well as to several protracted unresolved conflict~." (Press Release
SG/SM-3563, pp. 1, 3)
We hope that the wishes expressed by the Secretary-General will be fulfilled
in this memora~le year. For its part, my delegation will spare no effort to help
in this and sincerely hopes that our adversary from the East will show the same
sense of responsibility and desire for harmony and peace.
In a resolution of 17 December 1984 the General Assembly bOOk the following
decision:
"that the theme of the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations shall be
'United Nations for a better world' and expresses the hope an~ desire that the
year 1985 will mark the beginning of an era of durable and global peace and
justice, social and economic development and progress and independence of all
peoples." (resolution ~9/161 A, para. 1)
Lastly, a decision adopted on 11 April 1995 by the Preparatory Committee for
the Fortieth Anniversary of the United Nations stated:
"The general debate should be held as usual for a three-week period, from
23 September to 11 October, on the clear and explicit understanding that
statements made by Heads of State or Government and special ~nvoys during that
period will also be considered as part of the commemoration." (A/40/49, P. 11)
The United Nations aim for the present session is therefore that all
Governments and PeOples should make this anniversary an occasion for reaffirming
their faith in the goals and principles of the Charter.
On 24 october, 1986 will be declared the "International Year of Peace". This
constitutes fot the Khmer people - the most unfortunate of all - the last recourse
in the ocean of suffering and humiliation on which it has tossed for so many y~ars.
The Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the USSR, which supports it against our
people, must agree to prove themselves worthy of memberahip in the United Nations
and respect its resolutions and its Charter. If they were not to do so, what would
be the future of my people and other peoples victims of injustice and what would be
the·prospects for world peace, which is the greatest ambition of all peoples?
We Khmers have never concealed our eager desire to seek an equitable and
honourable political solution to the differences which pit us against our
Vietnamese neighbours and their Khmer proteges in Phnom Penh.
Quite recently, our friends from the Association of South-East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) - whose great goodwill I salute here - with the support of our Coalition
Government, proposed to the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam the holding of proximity
talks, with the possibility of the Khmer authorities in Phnom Penh being
represented in the Hanoi delegation. Our proposals and those of our ASEAN friends
met with a flat refusal. Viet Nam and its proteges in Phnom Penh, backed by the
Soviet Union, have rejected all our proposals for peace, conciliation and
guarantees put forward, in particular, in my statements at the United Nations in
1983 and 1984.
viet Nam is now making a lot of fuss about what it calls the progress achieved
in the process of a political settlement of the question of South-East Asia and the
problem of Kampuchea and is apparently asking the international community not to
thwart this process. But this is just a new false manoeuvre designed to extricate
it from the growing isolation in which it finds itself and avoid being condemned
yet again by our Assembly, which since 1979 has never ceased to call for the total
and unconditional withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Kampuchea so that our people
can freely decide their own destiny. Today, as can be seen from many statements
made from this rostrum by representatives of States Members of the Organization,
the international community continues to hold firmly to this just position and to
call earnestly for Viet Nam to put an end to its aggression against Kampuchea.
Today more than ever before countries which love peace and justice are well aware
that Viet Ham's objective is to absorb Kampuchea into the "lnde-China Federation"
under Hanoi domination.
The fact is that, being unable to impose its fait accompli in Kampuchea by
force of arms, Viet Nam is trying to do so through diplomatic manoeuvres, the
cynicism and effrontery of which consist in arrogating to itself the right to speak
and act as a master in the name of the se-called lnde-China.
While waiting for a solution to be envisaged, if not found, which would lead
us out of this tragic impasse that brings more ruin and devastation to our country
every year, every month and almost every day, thus increasing the suffering of our
people and the loss of life, our resistance against the occupiers has not been
seriously weakened - as claimed by Hanoi and Phnom Penh - by the so-called big
victories of the Vietnamese offensive during the dry season of December 1984 to
March 1985. The tactics that we have carried out ever since then in the form of
many daring commando actions deep into the interior of the zones occupied by the
enemy and up to the approaches to Phnom Penh have caused the most serious concern
to the occupiers and their Khmer proteges.
In this connection, I shall quote not unilateral military communiques that
would give rise to suspicion but the testimony of independent, unbiased Western
journalists, all the more reliable in that they do not come from the supporters of
our Coalition Government.
with the Assembly's permission, I shall quote in chronological order.
(spoke in English)
The Washington Post, Thursday, April 25, 1985:
·William Branigin: 'The Cambodian Quagmire - Vietnam's Vietnam?'
Excerpts: 'Instead of the Americans, the Vietnamese are now the foreign
troops fighting dedicated guerrillas... Gen. Tran oong Man, the editor of the
[Vietnamese] Army newspaper Quan Doi Nhan Dan said: 'There are some
complicated problems in Cambodia that must be settled••• • That the vietnamese
are having problems can be discerned between the lines of statements such as
the article by Gen. Anh in December [1984] in the [Vietnamese] Army
theoretical journal. Anh, who is reportedly in charge of military operations
in Cambodia, laid surprising emphasis on the need to improve security in the
interior [of Cambodia]. He wrote that ••• Cambodian guerrillas had 'set up
logistical bases ••• for guerrilla and sabotage activities, seizing lands,
controlling the population, building counterrevolutionary forces and so
forth'. Ultimately, Anh ••• cautioned that 'the struggle is still long and
complicated••• ' The [North] Vietnamese are locked in another war with no
light at the end of the tunnel•••
·United Nations recognition of the Coalition Government of Democratic
Kampuchea, which is supported by the United States, "is based on the principle
that••• the Vietnamese invasion and continued occupation of Cambodia represent
a violation of international law that cannot be tolerated ••• The guerrillas
are proving hard to eradicate and the 'Vietnam War' analogies persist.
"Despite a successful offensive against the guerrillas along the
Thai-Cambodian border starting in November, there are indications that
security generally has deteriorated lately amid mounting guerrilla activity in
the Cambodian interior.
"Correspondents who have visited Cambodia this month have confirmed
guerrilla attacks within 20 miles of the capital, and Cambodian refugees
arriving at the border with Thailand have reported an upsurge of incidents in
various districts of the interior in the past two months. 'The level of
guerrilla activity inside Cambodia right now is as high as it has ever been'
since the Vietnamese invasion, said a senior Western diplomat in Bangkok•••
Since the Vietnamese dry-season offensive forced them out of their strongholds
near the Thai-Cambodian border earlier this year, 'the [guerrillas] have done
what they said they were going to do', the diplomat said. Taking advantage of
a vacuum in the interior that developed when the Vietnamese were concentrating
on the border, 'the [guerrillas] have been hitting district capitals and
provincial seats practically all over the country', he said, but particularly
in the western provinces of Battambang and Siemreap. 'Clearly the
[guerrillas] are giving the Vietnamese a great deal of difficulty', the
diplomat said.
"According to an Australian correspondent who recently visited Cambodia,
one Khmer [guerrilla] attack during his stay occurred March 26 in the former
capital of OUdong, about 25 miles north of Phnom Penh on Highway 5. He said
about 100 guerrillas destroyed a Vietnamese motor pool in the centre of town,
blew up a bridge on the northern outskirts, ambushed a Vietnamese convoy of
several trucks and killed about 15 Vietnamese troops.
"The guerrillas also entered the town market••• they called the town's
people to a political meeting before evacuating, he reported.
"Throughout the attack, he said, a post occupied by Cambodian soldiers of
the Heng Samrin government was left alone, and the troops made no attempt to
interfere.
"According to Western diplomats in Bangkok, similar attacks are not
unusual in other parts of Cambodia these days•••
"According to an investigation late last year by the New York-based
Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights, the People's Republic of
Kampuchea now appears••• as a human rights violator. 'The rule of law is not
respected in any serious sense in the People's Republic of Kampuchea', the
group concluded in a December 1984 report. 'For the hundreds or perhaps
thousands of political prisoners who inhabit its jails, beatings are
commonplace and more sophisticated forms of torture usual.· ••• There is a
growing popular resentment of the presence of an estimated 160,000 to 180,000
Vietnamese troops and increasing numbers of Vietnamese settlers.
"Specifically, Cambodian peasants lately have especially resented being
dragooned by the Vietnamese into forced-labour teams and sent to the
Thai-Cambodian border to build a network of road and defensive barriers,
according to Western relief workers in Cambodia. The network is aimed at
improving Vietnamese logistics in the border area and preventing guerrilla
infiltration. The Vietnamese have acknowledged mobilizing 'tens of thousands'
of Cambodians for the construction work •••
·One side effect of the project, said one relief official, has been the
spread of a resistant strain of malaria, common along the border, to workers
from other provinces. 'The forced labour and the malaria have caused a lot of
animosity towards the Vietnamese', the official said. 'The Vietnamese have
gained a lot militarily in the border area, but the toll has been very heavy
in terms of the health of Cambodians'.
-An influx of settlers also has raised indignation and suspicion among
some Cambodians that crowded Vietnam, with a population of 60 million to
Cambodia's estimated 6 million, which has expansionist designs on its
potentially bountiful neighbour.
-Recent visitors to Cambodia have reported seeing Vietnamese settlers who
clearly were newcomers and who spoke no Khmer, the name of the language and
ethnic group of the Cambodian majority.
"While many of the Vietnamese may cross into Cambodia on their own from
southern Viet Nam in search of economic opportunities, some apparently benefit
from government support.
·One Cambodian barber in Phnom Penh told a visitor recently, for example,
that he had been obliged to take on a Vietnamese partner to get back the shop
he had been forced to abandon•••
-Another Cambodian shopkeeper told an Italian correspondent in a southern
suburb of phnom Penh that 20 to 30 Vietnamese a day were arriving in trucks to
take up residence there. While they were talking, the reporter witnessed the
arrival of one such truck.
"A Western relief agency official who lived in Phnom Penh a few years ago
said after a recent return trip that he was 'amazed' at the number of new
Vietnamese settlers he saw. 'The traders of farm produce tend to be
Vietnamese, nor Khmer anYmore', he said. 'People are very angry about it',
said another recent visitor of the Cambodians he met. 'They talk about the
Vietnamese more and more'-.
(continued in French)
-Le Monde, 8 May 1985: The Vietnamese at grips with the guerrillas, by
Philippe Pons. Excerpts:
-The Vietnamese now have to cope with a type of war which - they know
better than anyone else - war machines can hardly break down, namely,
guerrilla warfare••• As a substitute for the 'Maginot Line', this
Vietnamese-style 'Berlin Wall', composed of ditches and slopes for the
construction of which Hanoi has rounded up Cambodians from all over the
country, actually appears relatively easy to get around. It seems that the
Vietnamese no longer control strategic points, a fact that already
necessitates a massive deployment of their forces... The Vietnamese and the
regime in PhJ~m '~enh are far from being the masters of the country••• Today
the Vietnamese ~~ve won only a partial victory: they have expelled the
civilian populations from the bases along the border, but they have failed to
subdue the resistance. Quite the contrary, it appears as if they have
contributed to strengthening the [Democratic Kampuchea tripartite)
alliance ••• The Vietnamese diplomatic isolation has worsened••• Hanoi •••
runs the risk of getting bogged down in a long and expensive conflict.
(Spoke in English)
-Far Eastern Economic Review, 9 May 1985: 'The war contin'les. Hanoi has wiped out
the key Khmer resistance bases, but the guerrillas are increasingly active inside
the country', by Rodney Tasker. Excerpts:
-Latest reports suggest that widespread fighting deeper inside Cambodia
has reached a new level of intensity... The [guerrillas) have spearheaded a
(Premident Norodom Sihanouk)
tesistance'campaign to carty out almOst daily attacks on Vietnamese troops,
sabotaging lines of communication and hitting administrative centres•••
'After talking to dozens of Cambodia~13 [refugees at the Thai border) from
al.cst all the province6, I am convinced that fighting is worse than it's ever
been [since Vietnam's la~e 1978 invasion)', the source commented•••
"Independent sources tend to confirm that the [guerrillas] are indeed
very active carrying out sabotage operations to within 10 ki,lometres of
Phnom Penh. One Australian international relief worker based in Phncm Penh
gave an eye-witness confirmation of a Khmer [guerrilla] raid on the town of
Oudong, 30 kilometres north-west of Phnom Penh, on 26 March, an attack which
has since been confirmed to the Review by other independent sources, who also
say the Khmer [guerrillas] successfully ambushed a squad of reinforcements
rushed to the scene. He said the Khmer [guerrillas] claim that they killed
20 Vietnamese troops and destroyed military posts and other buildings was
largely accurate. The relief worker said he and his colleagues in Phnom ?enh
were now 'severely restricted in travelling by land outside the capital'.
Other sources confirmed that driving from Phnom Penh north to Kompong Chhnang,
Kompong Cham ana Kompong Thom had become a dangerous exercise because of
guerrilla activities and that the aut~orities often prevented such travel, and
if they did, movement was restricted to daylight hours. According to
diPlomatic and other sources, an official Mongolian delegation headed by
Foreign Minister Mangalyn Dugersuren arrived in Phnom Penh in March, having
been told that part of the visit would include a flight to the historic
Angkor Wat temples. But when they arrived, the party was told the Angkor Wat
trip had been cancelled 'for their own safety'. Other reports speak of
burned-o~t trucks strewn along some of the main highways in Cambodia and
frequent disruption of rail services because of guerrilla sabotage attacks. A
ferry operating on the southern estuary of the Tonle Sap, or great lake, was
reportedly destroyed by guerrillas in January ... Independent sources
generally agree that the [guerrillas] were by no means crippled militarily by
the successful Vietnamese campaign to deprive them of their border
(president Norodom Sihanouk)
sanctuaries ...
The bulk of the [Democratic Kampuchea guerrillas) simply
melted away in their normal small units of no more than 10 men to continue the
guerrilla campaign inside Cambodia ••• The Vietnamese appear to be paying the
price of concentrating their best occupation troops in an effort to seal the
Cambodian-Thai border and deprive the resistance of any sanctuary there. The
price is weaker security in the Cambodian interior, a soft underbelly which
the [guerrillas) are exploiting."
(contined in French)
"Le Monde, Wednesday, 17 April 1985~ James Burnett~ Excerpts:
"It is conceded in Phnom Penh that 'kicking over [by the Vietnamese army]
the anthill [of the Khmer resistance)' has not solved all the problems. Far
from it. The plan now is to neutralize groups of resistance fighters
scattered all over the country. A tough job ••• And people know the danger
is very real ••• The threat of an 'enemy assault' on Phnom Penh was taken
seriously. Vietnamese advisers kept plying the Cambodian authorities with
security directives. Security measures in the capital's market places and the
9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, which had been in force for the past five years, were
tightened up. It has been learned from Khmer sources that there have been
growing numbers of arrests in the capital, Phnom Penh westerners have
been discreetly dissuaded from visiting markets. When Mr. Hun Sen recently
received representatives of humanitarian organizations, he told them he feared
one of their members might have been killed or taken hostage. The 2,000 or so
soviet experts in the country move around only by helicopters in rural areas."
(President Norodom Sihanouk)
(spoke in English)
·United Press International, Bangkok, 8 August 1985; Excerpts:
"The Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh is pressing civilians into guard
duty and tightening security in th~ f~ce of increased guerrilla attacks,
according to an official CamboQian report ••• Civilians throughout Phnom Penh
are to join regular army and militia units in 'vigorously performing patrol
and guard duties, particularly during the curfew hours, in the streets, along
the rivers and major communication lines and at e~tries and exits of the city
to contribute to the safety of important party and State targets', the
official report said. The report obtained by United Press International was
the first indication that civilian guards an& tightened road surveillance have
been added to Phnom Penh's long-standing dusk-to-dawn curfew. Western
diplomats confirmed that the internal security of Cambodia is deteriorating,
which is raising the concerns of 160,000 Vietn~mese occupation troops and the
Hanoi-installed Heng Samrin regime in Phnom Penh. 'The situation is at its
worst since the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in December 1978', said one
western diplomat. 'The guerrillas have penetrated deeply and are operating
throughout the country, inclUding the Phnom Penh area ••••• Confirmed
guerrilla raids have occurred this year in districts near Phnom Penh ••• ".
(continued in French)
I would add, for the information of representatives, that I had the honour to
receive last August in Kampuchea's free zone, representatives of foreign media and
television, and two ambassadors from friendly nations who presented their
credentials to me.
(President Norodom Sihanouk)
Following this information on the military situation in Kampuchea, I now have
the duty to take up the most important subject of the systematic and increasingly
serious violations of human rights of which the Heng Samrin and Hun Sen regime and
its Vietnamese protectors are guilty. May I quote again, in this respect, some
testimonies of fully reliable independent investigators.
(spoke in English)
I shall first quote excerpts from a Washington Associated Press report from
The Japan Time of Friday, 14 December 1984.
ftThe Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights said a delegation
it sent to Kampuchea in November found evidence that 'for the hundreds or
perhaps thousands of political prisoners who inhabit [Kampuchean) jails,
beatings are commonplace and more sophisticated forms of torture usual'. The
report directed its sharpest criticism at the People's Republic of
Kampuchea ••• The Lawyers Committee concluded that 'beatings - with
truncheons, metal pipes or rifle stocks - appear to be the most common form of
torture', but that more sophisticated methods involving electric shocks, and
metal vises for the head are sometimes used. 'Persons suspected of supporting
resistance activity are typically arrested without charges being made,
imprisoned without being sentenced or convicted, and kept in jail for
indeterminate periods', the report said. The New York-based Lawyers Committee
said its three-member delegation was the first human rights team to visit
Kampuchea, as Cambodia is now known, in at least 15 years. The delegation
cited what it called a 'pervasive reluctance' in the international community
to examine current Kampuchean human rights abuses."
(President Norodom Sihanouk)
The following are excerpts that appeared in The Canberra Times of Friday,
14 December 1984:
"The Vietnamese-bac~ed Government of Kampuchea routinely and brutally
torture political prisoners, a United States human rights group said
yesterday. A report by the New York-based Lawyers Committee for International
Human Rights said, 'The rule of law is not respected in any serious sense in
the People's Republic of Kampuchea' Beatings with truncheons, metal pipes
or rifle stocks appeared to be the most common form of torture. Beatings were
often supplemented with prisoners being suspended from ceilings, given
electric-shock treatment, having plastic bags put over their heads, having
powdered lye blown in their faces, and having metal contraptions tightened
around their heads. Prisoners, estimated to number in the thousands, were
often kept for months in windowless cells and forbidden to make any comment
about the Vietnamese presence in their country, not even to cite it in their
'confessions'."
(President Norodom Sihanouk)
In The New York Times of Thursday, 15 November 1984, there is an article
entitled ~Hanoi linked to Cambodian torture" by Barbara Crossette, dated from
Bangkok, Thailand, 14 November:
"A visiting American civil rights group says that Vietnamese Government
officials are widely involved in the arrest and torture of Cambodian
citizens ••• 'In Cambodia, there simply does not exist the recognition of
civil liberties or human rights on a basis recognized by the world community,'
said Floyd Abrams, the constitutional expert and First Amendment lawyer, who
is a member of the American team ••• 'When you put toge ther a society,'
Mr. Abrams said in an interview on Tuesday, 'in which people are arrested
without charges being made and jailed without being convicted, in which
confessions are forced and torture seems to be commonplace, you simply are not
talking about a society that seriously recognizes the rule of law.' •••
Vietnamese are playing an extensive role in the security apparatus of the
Phnom Penh Government. Vietnamese were reported present o' actively taking
part in every interrogation and torture Torture methods, according to
former prisoners, included electric shocks, being trussed up and suspended
from the ceiling while being beaten, being shackled by the legs to stirrups
above the floor to force the body into a painful off-balance position and
haVing a plastic bag pulled over the head and closed around the neck until the
prisoner fainted. SOme prisoners reportedly died of beatings, others from
malnutrition and disease."
In the Far Eastern Economic Review on 26 August 1985 there is an article entitled
"Cambodia: forced human bondage" by John McBeth in San Ro Changan which reads:
"From Rattanakiri and Preah Vihear prOVinces in the North and North East
to Pursat in the West, tens of thousands of Cambodians are being pressed into
(President Norodom Sihanouk)
'national defence work' - a euphemism for an ambitious Vietnamese plan to seal
the 'l'hai-KallpUchea border ••• Diplomats ••• have confirmed the reports ••• A
Khmer doctor who r~cently defected from Phnoll Penh claims each of Callbodia's
provinces is collllllitted to supplying up to 25,000 to 30,000 workers over an
unspecified period of time to build and repair access roads, clear jungle, lay
minefields, and construct elaborate anti-infiltration barriers along the
malaria-infested frontier. Conscripts range in age from 18 to 45 and there is
general agreement that quotas have been established for each district, ranging
as high as 3,000 ••• Disease is apparently so rampant that many of the
medical workers themselves 90 down with malaria, hepatitis and viral
infections and are unable to work for weeks after their return ••• The dea th
rate alDOng the labour conscripts is unknown but diplomatic sources say many
are wounded by mines ••• Medical supplies are also reported to be inadequate
to deal with the sick, the bulk of whom contract malaria on top of other
complaints ••• SO Safen, former deputy director of Phnom Penh' s SOG-bed
Kampuchean-Soviet Friendship Hospital, said the forced labour programme was
initiated in March 1984 ••• So claimed opposition to the labour programme is
muted but widespread. Western aid workers and o~~er independent sources
confirm what they say is a tremendous amouni: of bitterness over the
Vietnamese-directed plan, particularly the way women are being conscripted to
make up the work force quotas. One of the more prominent critics, according
to So, was the regime's late Prime Minister, Chan 5y, who is said to have
complained to the Vietnamese that it would lead to an unacceptable number of
deaths. Sy is reported to have died of a heart or circulatory ailment in a
Moscow hospital last December."
('President Norodom Sihanouk)
In !he New York Times of 26 August 1985, Barbara Crosaette says:
-Cambodian refugees reaching Thailarld have said civilians are also being
used as 'human mine detectors'. A staff director of Ca~dia's National
Military Training SChool said recentlytbat what he ~l)~ed 'manual' mine
detection was being carried out along the border.·
The following are excerpts from the 1984 report of Amnesty Internaticnal,
pages 231 and 232:
-Amnesty International's main concern was the reported detention without
trial by the authorities of the People's Republic of Kampuchea of people they
suspected of opposing their policies or of supporting groups engaged in armed
resistance against them In July 1983, refugees arriving at camps near the
western border reported that widespread arrests had taken place in the army
and administration of the Government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea and
among the peasants ••• Starting in April 1983, 300 people were reportedly
arrested irl the western provinces of Simreap, Oddar Meanchey and Ba ttambal19.
Among them were said to be Chan Seng, the Governor of Siemreap province,
Keo Ba, his former deputy, as well as military officers, teachers and village
cadres ••• Villagers were reportedly arrested during the year 1983 for
protesting against arrests, military conscription and forced relocation.
Further arrests of government officials were reported in OCtober and
December 1983 in Kampot and Kompong Cham provinces. Amnesty International had
no information on the reasons for these arrests. Refugees from western
provinces also reported the arrest, ill-treatment and torture in June 1983 of
Villagers by Vietnamese soldiers present in the country who suspected them of
helping the armed operation of the guelrillas. Amnesty International was
unable to estimate the number of people detained on political grounds
(President Norodom Sihanouk)
Among the individual cases it investigated was" that of Mao Ayauth, a former,."
television and radio producer who was wo.:tking in the Government"'s information
service and was reportedly detained in 1981. Amnesty International learned of
the release at the end of 1982 of Nam Bunnaraya, Direetor of the orchestra of
the Kampuchean radio, after 18 months "detention without charge or trial. Most
political detainees were believed to be detained without charge or trial
Amnesty International was concerned about reports that some ot the prisoners
held in the Central Prison in Phnom Penh, were kept in fetters and in unlit
cells, especially during their period of interrogction. Detention for
're-education' purposes withou~ charge or trial appeared to be widespread
In June 1983, the Phnom Penh authorities confirmed that more than 100 were"
being detained in a camp in Takeo, some having been held for up to three
years. •
(continued in French)
The testimony I have just quoted is more than alarming. It shOtJs that the
Heng Samrin and Hun Sen regime, which is desperately trying to present its best
possible image to those few visitors from the free world, has been unable to
deceive their vigilance and shrewdness. We can see that the SOcialist Republic of
Viet Nam encourages torture when it does not engage in the practice itself. Not
only do the two acolyte regimes regard as wortbless the United Nations mottoes and
slogans on peace, tolerance, conciliation and co-operation among peoples and
nations, but they are endangering everything that provides guarantees for the
dignity of human beings.
The violation of human rights, the suppression of fundamental freedoms, the
absence of any serious jUdicial procedures, the common practice of torture, the
recourse to political assassination, all these constitute an extremely serious
liI- .:
threat to those r.i.ghts which tile. United Nations has the duty to protect at all
costs. . .
This accuJll11ation of crimes against humanity by the SOcialist Republic of
Viet Nam and its proteges in Phnom Penh obviously remOl1es all justification for the
Vietnamese invasion and occupation of Cambodia.
The United Nations Charter, human rights and international law are treated
with conteMpt by the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, endorsed and supported by the
SOI1iet Union and some 20 countries in its orbit and that will, alas, tarnish the
celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations and the International
Year of Peace in 1986.
We are therefore confident that our Organization will do its utmost to
discharge its responsibilities more fully in maintaining peace, and that in this
field it will not only strengthen the role of our Assembly but also the office of
the secretary-General, in order to make his admirable diplomacy still more
efficient.
We trust that resolutions adopted by our Assembly designed to put an end to
foreign occupation and to restore peace will be implemented more effectively than
they have been so far.
The people and the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, who have been
waging fo~ almost seven years a resolute and strenuous struggle to regain the
independence of their homeland and their right to self-determination, always
support the peoples of all continents who are fighting for the same ideals. On
this occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations and its Charter, we
should like solemnly to renew our unswerving solidarity and support.
First, we renew our firm and cordial solidarity with our brothers and sisters
of Laos, who are waging a strenuous and brave struggle for the survival of their
motherland and national identity against Viet Nam's absorption.
Second 1 we support the patriotic and realistic proposal put forward by
President Kim Il Sung to hold parliamentary talks between the National Assemblies
of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of South Korea so as
to ease tensions in the peninsula, put an end to mistrust and confrontation, and
create a climate conducive to mutual understanding and confidence for a peaceful
and independent reunification of Korea. The meetings and talks between the
delegations of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of South
Korea concerning economic and parliamentary affairs and questions relating to the
Red Cross have already achieved encouraging results, which augurs well for further
progress towards the peaceful reunification of Korea. We trust that those meetings
and talks will continue to develop favourably for the good of the whole Korean
people and nation.
Third, we renew our fraternal support for and solidarity with the valiant
Afghan people and the heroic Mujahideen, who are waging a struggle similar to ours~
we express our profound admiration to them and our warm congratulations for their
Cer~inly, the Af.ghan people will never allow themselves to be subdued and the only
solution to the Af9han problem remains the total withdrawal of Soviet forces from
Afghanistan so that the Afghan people can exercise their right to
sel~~determinationand decide themselves on their form of government and political,
economic and social system, wi thout foreign interference in accordance wi th the
relevant Uni ted Nations resolutions.
Fourth, in the Middle East, a just and lasting peace cannot be established
without the recognition and exercise of the Palestinians' right to
self-determination, the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of
foreign territories by force, and the right of all States in the region to coexist
in peace and security. We continue to support the struggle of the Arab countries
and that of the Palestinian people under the leadership of the PLO to achieve this
goal. The terrorist acts that follow one on another make it increasingly difficult
to solve the problem. We condemn all of them, particularly the one that occurred
yesterday at Tunis against the headquarters of the PLO, which was in addition a
violation of Tunisian sovereignty. We hope that the current efforts to bring the
parties concerned to the conference table will prove fruitful so that this
commemorative year of the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations will be the
starting point of a settlement of the Palestinian problem and that of the Middle
East, which have already lasted all too long.
Fifth, the situation in Lebanon, which cannot be dissociated from the
situation in the Middle East, continues to be a matter of concern to the
international community. We sincerely hope that national harmony can be restored
so as to ensure peace and security in the country, safeguard national independence
and unity and ensure territorial integrity.
Sixth, the war between the two neighbouring and brotherly countries, Iran and
I:aq, has continued unabated for over five years, with a heavy toll in human lives
and material resources for both sides. We urge the two countries to listen to the
Appeals of the international commu~ity, to put an end to this bloodshed and to
start negotiations for a peaceful settlement of this conflict.
Seventh, our support for and solidarity with the African liberation movements
remains unchanged, especially with respect to the courageous and legitimate
struggle of the Namibian people under the leadership South West Africa People's
Organization (S~O), for their national independence in a united Namibia including
Walvis Bay and the coastal islands. The brutal repression of the Namibian people
and the establishment by the apartheid regime in Pretoria of a so-called interim
government in Namibia, are aimed only at perpetuating the illegal occupation of
Namibia, in violation of United Nations resolutions, particularly Security Council
resolutions 385 (1976) and 435 (1978), which remain the only valid basis for a
peaceful, just and lasting settlement of the problem of decolonialization of
Namibia. Tension in southern Africa will continue to worsen as long as the
Pretoria regime refuses to give up its policy of apartheid, its illegal occupation
of Namibia, and its aggression ar~ nst and destabilization of neighbouring
countries. Slaughter, arrests, and arbitrary mass detentions which have been
taking place since the imposition of the state of emergency in South Africa have
aroused the indignation and condemnation of the whole international community.
They show that the apartheid regime cannot be reformed and that only its
elimination can bring about the establishment of a free, united and democratic
society in South Africa. We welcome the sanctions adopted by developed countries
against the Pretoria regime. Those sanctions, which should undoubtedly be more
stringent, in combination with increased moral, material and diplomatic assistance
to the just struggle of the South African peoples, are likely to induce the
defenders of apartheid to listen to reason.
desertification and compounded by external economic factors, continue to claim tens
of millions of victims in Africa. 'We wish to reaffirm our solidarity with and our
admiration for all the African peoples and Governments who are struggling with
courage, tenacity and dignity to cope with this unprecedented economic and social
crisis. The people of Kampuchea, a small and impoverished country, a victim of the
VietnamesG genocidal war of aggression, feel part of and are deeply affected by the
misfortunes and sUfferings of their African brothers and sisters. They will
continue to offer their very modest contributions to the commendable efforts of our
Secretary-General and the international community to alleviate those sufferings.
We ccn~~~tulate all those countries that have granted emergency assistance to the
vict;~4 and have provided manifold forms of aid to the African programmes of action
at the national and regional levels, with a view to finding a long-term structural
solution to the crisis. They have responded positively to their international
responsibility, a responsibility which falls to us all as human beings. They have
shown that, united, we can successfully take up this tragic challenge, involVing a
whole continent.
Ninth c and last, we consider that the Contadora group is the best instrument
to resolve the crisis in Central America by peaceful means, and to restore peace
and stability on the basis of respect for tbo independence, sovereignty and
territorial integrity of all States in the region.
The recent setting up by four important Latin American countries of a group in
support of the Contadora Group will not fail to give a new impetus to its action so
as to prevent the situation in the region from dangerously deteriorating, and it
will help to realize its noble objectives. We continue to lend our support and
encouragement to the Contadora Group.
The appalling natural calamity, which plunges Mexico into mourning, has upset
the international community by its exceptional size. On this painful occasion, I
would like, on behalf of the people of Kampuchea and their coalition Government,
and on my own behalf, to assure the Mexican Government and the valiant people of
Mexico of our profound sympathy and sincere condolences.
On behalf of the General
Assembly 1 wish to thank the President of Democratic Kampuchea for the important
statement he haG just made.
~is Royal Highness Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, President of Democratic
Kampuchea, was escorted from the General Assembly Hall.