A/41/PV.25 General Assembly

We have h~ard the last speaker for this afternoon. Several representatives have asked to exercise their right of reply. Before I call on them, may I remind members that in accordance with General Assembly decision 34/401, statements in exercise of the right of reply are limited to 10 minutes for the first intervention, and to five minutes for the second intervention, and should be made by representatives from their seats. Mr. de KEMOULARIA (France) (interpretation from French): I cannot leave without replying to the statements that were made this morning by the Vice-President and Minister for Financial Affairs of Fiji, and by the representative of Vanuatu on French nuclear tests and New Caledonia. I wish once more to do this with moderation as usual. First of all, on the nuclear tests. I already had the opportunity last week, in similar circumstances, to recall what all of us have known for many years about the conditions of security in which French nuclear tests take place and the harmlessness of their effects both on the population and on the environment. Those effects have been studied in the field by national and international commissions; the Assembly knows the conclusions that they reached after their work, and so I will not repeat them. What I want to stress, however, is the behaviour - which seems to me quite exaggerated - of those countries that do not hesitate to describe as arrogant the position of France when, in the full exercise of its sovereignty, on French territory, it carries out an action that does not affect them at all. Is the arrogance not rather that of those who try without ceasing to impose their views on countries and territories a thousand miles away from their territories and who vis-~-vis a continent that has vast seas, behave as ·if they were the owners? These claims and practices of times gone by show contempt for the most elementary rules of international law, but I have no doubt that, with good faith, those countries will manage to understand us better. With regard to New Caledonia, I must mention certain statements by the representative of Vanuatu. The passages he devoted to this auestion show that he is Very ignorant of the history of that Territory, of its development, of its preSent situation, and finally, of the role played by France in the emancipation of peOPles throughout the world. If some speak here of New Caledonia, it is because France has striven to preserve and defend Melanesian pOpulations there. I must remind the Assembly of certain things that the spokesman of Vanuatu seems to be ignorant of. First, all the inhabitants of New Caledonia have full civil, political, economic and social rights, just like all the citizens of my country. Secondly, the Territory has, within the French Republic, a status of broad autonomy, that takes into account its specific nature and the complex and multiracial nature of its society. Thirdly, the Caledonians, as the Assembly now knows, can freely decide on their future in July 1987 by a referendum which offers them the option of independence. I must repeat that the referendum must take place in complete calm, without any foreign pressure of any kind, in the interests of all the inhabitants of the is1and. Mr. FARTAS (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (interpretation from Arabic): This afternoon we heard the representative of the northern army of Chad rehash the often repeated fabrications, which would not have warranted a reply were it not for the fact that they have been inflated to the level of fraud with the distribution of a map alleging that the Jamahiriya had annexed part of Chadian territory and that it occupies another part of that country. A few days ago, the Jamahiriya affirmed in this very Hall that it respected its international borders, borders which it inherited from the era of Italian colonialism, and that it did not occupy one inch Of Chadian territory. The map in question is a fabrication, a forgery that we firmly rej ect. There is no need for me to stress again that the problem of Chad is a matter for Chad and has absolutely nothing to do with my country. There is not a single Libyan soldier on Chad's soil. The lies and fabrications we heard this morning in this Hall are totally untrue. Mr. BOUNCHHAT (Democratic Kampuchea) (interpretation from French): The General Assembly, which will soon discuss the question of Kampuchea and the situation there - one of the main items on its agenda - will not fail on that occasion to solemnly condemn the trickery of Hanoi. My delegation does not think it would be useful to speak on that subject at this point. Nevertheless, it feels bound to give a heated reply to the statement made a moment ago from this rostrum by' the representative of the Socialist Republic of V!et Ram, so very odious in our opinion was the way in which he tried to falsify the situation. However, the facts are simple and known to all. Despite unanimous condemnation on the part of the international community, Viet Nam has persisted in its attempt to absorb our country. Please allow me to emphasize here that in order to carry out that colonialist design - to use the words of the Prime Minister of France, Jacques Chirac - 200,000 Vietnamese soldiers and 700,000 settlers are deployed on our territory at the present time sowing death and destruction. However, not only does the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam refuse the Khmer people its right to live in independence, dignity and peace but it is also jeopardizing peace and stability of the entire region of South-East Asia. (Mr. Fartas, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) It'Ia t real hope do we have to make 1986 a year of peace in other than words if Viet Nam, a full-fledged Member of our organization, can with impunity violate the pr inciples of the Char ter and keep up a conflict which it alone has initiated and for which it bears sole responsibility? It must be IX>inted out that it has been occupying our coun try for eight years, and Hanoi has made no gesture to reach a satisfactory political solution for the I<ampucnean problem. On the contrary, it has used force to try to present us with a fait accanpli in our own country. Therefore my delegation wishes to denounce vehemently the manoeuvres oonoocted by Hanoi to deceive the internatiooal community, as was done here a few moments ago by its representative. If, as he asserts, Viet Nam truly aspires to peace, it should respond promptly and favour ably to the eight-point peace proposal adopted by the Coali tion Government of Democratic Kampuchea on 17 March 1986 and set forth in this forum by Pr inee Norodan Sihanouk on 30 septenber last. Based Q\ the relevant just resolutions of the General Assembly and the Declara tion of the Internaticn.al Cooference on KamPlchea, our proposal, being reasooable and comprehensive, is aimed simply at allowing Viet Nam an hooourable ~y out of its war of aggression against my country in which it has become bogged down and of the isolation in which it finds itself in the international community. Th is proposal would make it poss ible to put an end to the suffer ings not only of the Khmer people, the v ictirns of aggression, but also of the Vietnamese people, Who, we are convinced, certainly do not wish a cootinuation of the struggle. (Mr. Bounchhat, Democr atic Kamplcnea) In putting forward this wise proposal, we would have it cwedooked the fact that the Vietnamese leader s, through the appalling dev as ta tion they have wreaked against the people of KClllp.tchea in the past eight years, are really war criminals, just as the Nazis were, and that the Phnom Penh puppets are in fact nothing more than quislings. On the contrary, we would never wish to humiliate or corquer Viet Nam, with which an independent, united, peaoefu1, neutral and nen-aligned Cambodia still hopes to live one day in harmooy and understanding. In rejecting our peaoe proposal, Viet Nam is assuming before the international communi ty full respons !bility for the unforeseeable consequences of pursuing this war. Similar 1y, it is assuming before our organization the same responsibility for continuing arrogantly to violate the fundamental pr inciples of the Charter, in particular those prcbibiting States Members of the Organization from resorting to the use of force. in internatiooal relations and cooferring on them the obligation to settle their disputes by peaceful means. As far as our people and the PeOple of Viet Nam are concerned, the Hanoi Government is guilty of the mourning, suffering and destructioo it has imp:>sed on them through its anachrenistic colooialist and expansiooist policy. It is high time tne Hanoi leader 5 saw reaSal and ended the occupa tioo of Kampuchea , in keeping with the urgent appeals of the international community and the peoples of both Rampuchea and Viet Nam. Mr. ADOtM (Chad) (interpretatioo from French) ~ About two weeks ago we heard the Libyan representative responding, but without nuch convictien, to the highly relevant and true words spoken by the Prime Minister of the French Rep.tblic, Hr. Ch irac, on the si tua tion in Chad. At that time I exercised my right of reply. (Mr. Bounchhat, oemocratic KCIIIIIIchea) Today Qlce again the representative of the Tripoli regime is making himself ridiculous by using fallacious and irresponsible verbiage, claiming that there is 00 Libyan occupa tion and there are no Libyan soldiers in Chad. This once aga in is intended to divert the attention of the international coJllllunity. We are all used to the lying words of the representatives of Libya in this AsselQbly. There really is an occupation of part of the territory of Chad. There really has been an amexa tion of what is known as the Aozou s trip. The map of which the Libyan representative has just spoken is, in my view, very similar to that Wlich exists in the Ulited Nations. That is why the Organization of African lhity at its last sunmit meeting reactivated its ad hoc conmitt.ee to stUdy and resolve the question of the Chad-Libya border by peaceful means. So we maintain that Chad is indeed occupied in the northern part, an area of approxillBtely 550,000 Equare kilometres, and it is occupied by 6,000 Libyan : soldiers. In this Assembly we call on Libya to co-operate with that ad hoc ! committee of the Organization of African U'1ity to find a solution for this border dispute, on the basis of the maps that exist in the United Nations and that are therefore inter na tionally recognized. Mc. VAN LIEROP (Vanuatu); It was not my delegation that referred to Prance as being arrogant. I wish to set the record straight. I would re fer the t representative of France to our statement delivered this morning and suggest a oareful rereading of that statement. He will see that nowhere in that statement did we refer to France or any other nation as being arrogant. However, we have heard the rather odd and lI'lique argument that the security int.erests of France justify somehow the imposition of nuclear tests on the co untr ies and the peoples of our regioo, thereby caus ing insecuri ty to exist in the coun t.r ies and the peoples of Clur regioo. 1 do not know how 1 would d1aracter be that. "Arrogance· is not a wocd tha t we have used before. 1 can only say. "If the shoe fits, wear it". we prefer not to use labels or names of that sort, and we have made that very clear. Therefore' we would request the representative of France kindly to listen carefully to the argumen ts that we present for the post tions that we take. Cootinuing Oh the sooject of nuclear testing, we are intr igued by the argument that somehow er other French nUclear tests do not affect the countries of our regioo, when all the scienti fie ev idenc:e suggests otherwise. we would also say to the representative of France that, if nuclear tests CQ'l&.lcted 1,000 miles from the territory of any of the member States of the South Pacific Forum are so safe, we will not even suggest, as others have very wisely and ably dCl'le, that those tests should be conducted within the territory of France. Let us go even a step further and say th is. If the tests are so safe, why not coowct them l,OOO miles from the territory of Franoe and then wait and see how 1009 it takes for other ooW'ltries of other regions 1,000 miles from the territory of France to come here to the tl'lited Na tions and object to those tests? Finally, on the' question of nuclear testing, we note that the representative of France keeps referring to the visit of a scientific missioo to the site of the French nuclear tests in our region. The posi tion of the GCN'ernment. of Vanuatu was and remains that it will not participate in such a mission because the Q)vernment of Vanuatu believes that these tests are unsafe and that they are also illUlor:al, and no amount of evidence of any sort, of any kind, will ever convince the Governlllent of Vanuatu that conducting nuclear tests or building and stocicpUing nuclear weap:>ns is anything but an immoral act. On the question of New Caledonia, once again I find myself very disturbe(J. I do not believe that the representative of France meant to call the Government of ] Vanuatu ignorant. I do not believe that my good fr iend the representative of France meant to call me ignorant. Perhaps the interpreter misunderstood or perhaps there was a poor use of words. Although we might disagree with the representative of Franoe with respect t:o the position he is instructed to take on the colonial situation in New Caledonia, we would never character ize ei ther him or his arqumen ts as i gnor ant. Once again, we will not say that that is arrogance, but, again, if the shoe fits, then wear it. we will match our h.istory, our know1.edqe and our ~derstanding of the colonial situation in New Caledonia with that of the representative of France, or any other representa tive. We would have preferred to leave a discussion of the details and specifics of , \:he colooial situation in New Caledooia to a later date. However, we can understand the anxiety and agitation of our good friend the representative of France and his extreme haste to go into the details and substance of that question now. After all, it does appear that a very significant portion if not most of the colonial questions now before the in ternational communi ty involves fa ilures by (Hr. Van Lierop, vanuatu) Pr ance to canply wi th its du ties and respons ib i11 ties as an Admin is ter ing Power, not only in our regioo but in other ugloos of the world. Finally, with reference to the proposed so-called referendum to be held next year, this is precisely the point why the countr iee of our region are extremely alarmed and distressed with the obvious attempt by France to present to the international ooJllllunity political facts before the united Nations has an opportunity to discharge its duties in New Caledooia. We maintain that the proper function of a referendum or an exercise of self-determination would be to inVolve the thi ted Nations in that process. It has happened be fore, time and time again, and we see no reasoo at all to suggest nOill that great haste be exercised in this case and that the international commlllity be exclude'd from fulfilling its proper role in the exercise of self-determinatioo to take place in New Caledon la or in any other Terri tory that ie at the moment non-e elt-gCN ern ing.

I now call on representatives who wish to exercise their right of reply for the secood time. Mr. de Kl!MOULARIA (France) (interpreta tioo from French): NIl turally, I listened with a great deal of interest to my colleague the representative of Vanuatu. I will not speak as long as he did. I deduce that the length of his argument meant that it had been prepared in adYanoe, even before 1 had thought of exercising my right of reply to what he said. But I must say that to hear him speak of ~ region - in other words, to say that the entire region of the South Pacific, an important part of the world, is his region - seems to me to be some.nat pretentious. This might disturb many oo~tr ies around Vanuatu, but I do not th ink that Van uatu ill tended to go as far as that. Since he spoke about anxiety or agitation on my part, I would say to my colleague, in a very friendly way, that in truth France in this situatioo is not afraid for the facts to be known. On the cootr ary , we would 1 ike the facts to be known. And when he calls into question the denncratic referendum, in the democratic traditions of my country, I doubt that his own Government would like to see one day any organization, even as lofty as the united Nations come to look into a vote within the territory of Vanuatu. Mr. VAN LIEROP (Vanuatu): It is almost laughable that we are reduced to considering whether my response to the statement in exercise of the right of reply by the representative of France was or was not prepared in advance. For the edification of those delegations which might be wondering: no, it was not. I have my hastily scribbled notes right here. The type.of reply that we heard from the representative of France, while I have a great deal of respect for his abilities, unfortunately did not require us to prepare a response in advance. I had no way of knowing what the representative of France was going to say. But let me conclude by reminding the representative of France that in fact the United Nations came to Vanua tu and wi tnessed an exercise of self-determina tion when Vanua tu was a colony of the Un ited Kingdom and France. We seek noth ing more and noth ing less for the people of New Caledonia or any other Non-Self-Governing Territory. The meeting rose at 6.30 p.m. (Mr. Van Lierop, Vanuatu)