A/41/PV.42 General Assembly

Before beginning the consideration of the item on the agenda for this morning, it is my sad duty to inform the General Assembly of the tragic death of the President of the People's Republic of Mozambique, His Excellency Mr. Samora Moises Machel. He was a valiant freedom fighter and a statesman of world stature. He led a liberation movement whose victory is seminal to the final eradication of one of the last major bastions of the colonial era, southern Africa •. His victory against great odds remains an inspiration to those who are still struggling for their freedom. He raised the great people of Mozambiaue to heights of glory. We recall his gracious presence und his words of wisdom in this Hall last year during the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations. We were impressed by his inspirational commitment to the Charter of the United Nations. The death of President Machel is a loss not just to his country and people, not just to Africa, but to the world. I now invite members of the Assembly to stand and ohserve a minute of silence in tribute to the memory of President Samora Moises Machel. The members of the General Assembly observed a minute of silence.

I call on the secretary-General.

It is with great sorrow that I address my most sincere condolences to the people and Government of Mozambiaue, to the family of the deceased and to the Mozambican delegation to the united Nations on the tragic death of Mr. Samora Moisea Machel, President of the Republic of Mozambique. In him Africa loses one of its most outstanding leaders, who was at the same time a fighter, a man of action and of dialogue; Mozambiaue loses its leader and source of great inspiration in the heroic days of its fight for independence; the united Nations, which he regarded as the depository of the hopes of all developing peoples, loses a Head of State who always gave it his enthusiastic supportJ and I personally lose a~\ admired and respected friend.

I call on the representative of Benin, Mr. Simon Ifede Ogouma, who will speak on behalf of the Group of African states. Mr. OGOUMA (Benin) (interpretation from French): Africa has just learned with bitterness of the tragic death of one of its true sons, Samora Moises Machel, President of the FRELIMO Party and President of the People's RepUblic of Mozambiaue. He died in an air accident in the company of his closest comrades. He died carrying out a mission for the people of Mozambique and for Africa, a mission which is part of the struggle conducted by the people of southern Africa for independence and sovereignty, aga~.nst apartheid and for peace in the region. President Samora Machel was known in Africa and internationally as an intrepid leader, and a faithful son of the people of Mozambiaue, faithful to its cause, faithful to its needs and faithful to its str~g9le. with his death we have lost a hero of the national liberation struggle of Africa, to which he devoted his entire life, in the service of the liberation of the continent and in particular of Mozambiaue. He was known to all. He was with us last year to deliver his message of peace and hope in this very Hall when we commemorated the fortieth anniversary of the united Nations. ~oday, the situation in southern Africa must be the focus of our attention and we must take further steps to put an end to the racist apartheid regime. On this sad oc~asion, we offer our eondolences to our brothers and friends in MozambiQUe, to the people of Mozambiaue as a whole, and to our colleagues in the Permanent Mission of Mozambiaue in New York.

I now call on Mr. Kiyoaki Kikuchi, representative of Japan, who will speak on behalf of the Group of Asian States. Mr. KIKUCHI (Japan): On behalf of the members of the Asian Group, I wish to extend sincere condolences to the People's Republic of MozambiQUe on the tragic death of its belovea President, Mr. Samora Moises Machel, and others who perished in the accident. It was a great shock to learn that 37 people lost their lives along with those distinguished statesmen when the aircraft in which they were flying crashed near the borders of MozambiQUe, Swaziland and South Africa. President Machel had guided his great country wit~~ courage and determination since he led it to independence in 1975. As the first President of his country, he devoted his great energy and talent to the development of MozambiQUe. Conseauently his death will be a great loss not only to the people of MozambiQUe but also to the people of Africa and, indeed, the whole world. As far as the Japanese Government and people are concerned, we are especially grieved', because just this past summer the late President Machel paid an official state visit to Japan and the leaders of our two countries deepened mu.tual understanding. I wish to express again m¥ deep sympathy to the wife of the President and the bereaved families and to the people of Mozambiaue.

I call on Mr. Anatoly Mardovich of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, who will speak on behalf of the Group of Eastern European States. Mr. MARDOVICH (Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic) (interpretation from Russian): On behalf ( ~ the States of Eastern Europe, I should like to express to the people and Government of the People's Republic of Mozambique our heartfelt condolences on the tragic death of their President, Mr. Samora Moises Machel. A valiant fighter for peace, freedom and justice has died. Under the guidance of the FRELIMO Party and its president, Samora Moises Machel, the people attained independence and is now building a new society based on the principles of freedom and social progress. That work was carried out in conditions of the intensified opposition of outside forces. In internaticnal affairs Mozambiaue is conducting an anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist and anti-racist policy to consolidate the forces of peace and social progress, help bring about a cessation of the arms race and improve the international climate, and is working actively within the Organization of African unity and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries. (Mr. Kikuchi, Japan) Q1ce again we should like to express our profound cQ'ldolences to the people of Mozalibique and to the family and friends President salDOra M)ses Machel. we express the conviction that the people of Mozanbiql.'e and FRELlMO will successfully attain their revolutionary goals and ltlO'Ie alQ'lg their chosen p!!l th. The people of Mozanbique can, as in the past, count on our full solidarity.

I call on Mr. Mar 10 M)ya Palencia of Mexico, who will speak on behalf of the La tin American Sm tea. Mr. MOYA PALENCIA (Mexico) (interpretation from Spanish); On behalf of the tatin American and Caribbean Group of cola'luies, we express to the people and Government of Mozarrbique our great sorrow and profound solidarity on the occasion of the tragic death yesterday of its President, Mr. samoca Moises Machel. The peoples of ratin America and the Caribbean once again today join with the heroic people of MoZaJIb!que, as they did when they suppor ted its strugglE! for na tional liberation and hailed its admissioo in 1~7S to the cORlDunity of natioos as an independent S1:8te under the guidance of its leader, Hr. Samota Machel. We saw Pres ident Machel per sooally for the last time at the recent meeting in Harare, where he reiterated the political and social principles of the Non-Ali~ed Movement, condemned apartheid and banditry supported by the Government of Pretoria, fully in keeping with what he was throughout his life, a constant heroic fighter for freedom and the equality of all people. The death of President Samora Machel, the causes of which must be fully clar Hied, is an ir reparable l06S for fobzanbique, for the peoples of Afr iea and for the whole Q\ited Nations. 81t his example lives on and will continue to stimulate the efforts of the world CXl behalf of peace, political liberation and economic development. (Mr. Mardovidl, Bye.i.orussian SSR) ~he PRESIDENT: I now call on Mr. Rans Werner Lautenschlager of the Fede~a1 Republic of Germany, who will speak on behalf of the Group of western European and Other States. Mr. LAUTENSCHLAGER (Federal Republic of Germany) It is indeed with deep regret that the members of the Group of Western European and other States learned this morning of the fateful accident that took the lives of the Read of State of the People's Republic of Mozambique and other members of the Government of the People's Republic of Mozambiaue, as well as other members of the Mozambican delegation. On behalf of the members Qf the Group of Western European and Other States, t should like to express to the people and Government of the People's Republic of Mozambiaue, as well as to our colleagues in the Mozambican delegation, our sincere sympathy. We all had come to feel a deep reapect f.or that great statesman whose loss will be felt not only by his own country but also by the whole world. We all know that President Samora Mach~l was a charismatic national leader of great stature. The members of the group of Western European and Other States share the grief of the people of Mozambiaue, their Government and the bereaved families over their sudden and painful loss.

I now call on Mr. Saoud Bin Salim Bin Hassan Al-Ansi of oman, who will speak on behalf of the Group Arab States. Mr. AL-ANSI: (Oman) (interpretation from Arabic): On behalf of the Group of Arab States, I extend sincere condolences to the people and Government of Mozambiaue on the tragic death of President ~amora Moises Machel, President of the People's Republic of Mozambigue and of FRELIMO, and his innocent comrades in the distressing airplane accident. President Samora Machel was a militant in the service of f~eedom and an outstanding statesman who led the struggle of h~~ friendly country, Mozambique, in its triumph over colonialism and in building the free People's Republic of Mozambiaue. Bis contructive contribution to the struggle against apartheid, against the policies pursued by the Pretoria regime, whether within his country, in ~o-operation with African front-line States or other African States or States of the world in general, has exposed the racist policy of that regime. We all extend our condolences to the family of the late President and to the families of his comrades, the martyrs of freedom.

I now call on Mr. Joseph Verner Reed of the United States of America, who will speak on behalf of the host country. Mr. REED (United States of America): On behalf of the President of the United states of America, the people of the host country and the entire delegation of the united States mission to the United Nations, I should like to express our profound condolences and regret at the sudden and tragic death of the President of the People's Republic of Mozambiaue. We extend to the people of Mozambiaue and its delegation accredited to the United Nations and to the families of those who were lost, our expression of fortitude in what we know and understand to be a difficult time. We recall President Machel's visit to the United States during the fortieth anniversary session of the General Assemb1Ye President Mache1 was a leader calling for peace and hope. A visionary, he worked to build his nation. President Machel understood the urgent need for co-operation in the interest of peace in southern Africa. He worked to improve r~lations between Mozambiaue and the United States of America. The President led his people with courage and unfailing determination in the struggle for t~e independence of Mozambiaue. (Mr. Al-Ansi, Oman) Again we express our profound ccmdolences to the people of MoZanbique and to the family. President Mache1 will long be remen:bered by his people and his friends around the world.

On behalf of the entire General Assembly I request the representative of Mozambique to convey our ccmdolences to the Government and people of Mozant>ique and to the bereaved families. Mr. OOS SAN'IDS (Mozanbique): Mc. President, I wish most sincerely to thank you, the secretary-General, the Cha irmen of the regional groups and the representative of the host country for their very kind words. They are so touching and yet so confor ting • You will understand that, at this moment of great grief for my people and country, I have no ~r:ds to reciprocate. I shall convey your kind message to my Government and to the bereaved families. Wi th your support, we &hall be able to surmount this irreparable loss and these difficulties and to continue our struggle. A luta continua.

The report of the secretary~neral, agenda item 25, is conta ined in oocurnent A/41/707. A draft resolu tion has been circula ted in c:bcument A/4l/L.2. Before calling on the fir st speaker, I sho~ld like to propose that the list of speakers in the debate on this item be closed today at 12.30 p.m. May I take it that there is no objection to this proposal? It was so decided. (!1!. Reed_, United States)

I now call on the first speaker in the debate on this item, Mr. Sarre of Senegal, who will also speak in his capacity as Chai~man of the Ad Hoc Committee of th~ International Confere~ce on Kampuchea. Mr. SARRE (Senegal) (interpretation from French): After the tribute that has been paid by the international community to an outstanding son of Africa, President Machel, I should like humbly to add the sincere condolences of the Head of State and Government and the people of Senegal and to ask our colleague from Mozambiaue to be kind enough to convey them to his Government. At its fortieth session the General Assembly adopted, for the seventh consecutive year, a resolution calling for the ending of the SUffering of the people of Cambodia. At the same time our Assembly uneauivocally condemned the foreign occupation of that country. It is regrettable that today no political solution has yet been found, despite the initiatives undertaken this year in that area. Once again, at a time when we are observing the International Year of Peace, a historic opportunity will have been lost. The General Assembly at the forty-first session is once again called upon to be mindful of the need to find a political settlement of this auestion. First I should like to recall that, for my country, Senegal, which is a member of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries and of the Ad Hoc Committee of the International Conference on Kampuchea, there is no doubt that the prolongation of this tragedy can only worsen the already tense climate in international relations and incurs the risk of increasing the danger that persists in that region. However, we should recall that the principles and the basic modalities for a comprehensive political settlement were clearly defined at the International Conference on Kampuchea held in July 1981. These principles comprise, on the one hand, respect for the right of the Khmer people freely to decide their own future, the restoration of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of country. The Conference also took account of the l~tgitimate concerns of all the countries of the region with rega~d to their security. My country conside~s that the conflict in Kampuchea is the result of a violation of those principles, which are in keeping with the principles of the Charter and of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries. As the international community pointed out at the very outset of the conflict, there cannot be any authorization under any pretext whatsoever of the use of force to overthrow the Government of a neighbouring country. Allowing that to happen would bring the risk of compromising the security af many States and first and foremost that of small States that have no military resources. That would be tantamount to acknowledging that might is right. Since the adoption of the most recent General Assembly resolution, the situati~n in Kampuchea ha~, unfortunately, shown no encouraging signs, despite all the steadfast efforts and the recent diplomatic initiatives undertaken by certain parties concerned. Among others, we have noted the recent eight-point proposal made by the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea on 17 March 1986. In our view, that initiative contains positive elements, since it has the advantage of taking account of the interests of all the parties concerned. We should have liked that initiative to have been given at least some consideration by the other P~!ty, which would have facilitated the beginning of serious negotiations conducive to a just and lasting settlement of the auestion of Kampuchea. unfortunately, the rejection of that proposal has only increased the risk of an escalation of that conflict. We wish also to note the various diplomatic initiatives undertaken by the countries of the Association of South-East Nations (ASE~N) to promote a comprehensive political settlement of the auestion of Kampuchea. In this regard, we wish to recall the positive elements contained in the recent communique of the ASEAN countries at their 19th ministerial meeting, held in Manila at the end of Furthermore, Indooesia, as the lBEAN interlocutor, has continued the contacts it undertook in 1984 with Viet Nam to establish the basis for a mutually acceptable broad dialogue. At the beginning of this year the President of the International Conference on Kampuchea, Mr. Leopold Gratz, made a tour of the region, and talked with the main parties to the conflict. Again, the aim of that mission was to seek to establish a dialogue among the parties coocerned. I cannot fa il to mention the major contr ibutiOli made by our Seeretary~~neral to the efforts to find a political solution to this problem. The work he has been engaged in and points for consideration put forward in his report to this session attest to his dedication to the cause of peace in this region. Senegal sincerely hopes that Hr. Perez de Cuellar and his Special Representati"e Hr. Rafeeuddin Ahmed will cootinue to work for a canpre.'lensive political settlement to this question. At the military level, despi te the L'elative calm along the Kampuc:hean-Thai border the .. H.uation of the Canbodian civilians established in the border region remains precal:'lous, which increases the already heavy burden on the Thai Government. I should like once again to EaY a tribute to the Thai authorities for the humanitarian spirit they have demonstrated in helping Cambodian civilians displaced by the hostilities. I also wish to congratulate the tbited Nations and the other international humanitar ian organizations ooncer ned for the effective wor k they are doing and for the support they are giving the refugees. In keeping with its mandate, the Ad Hoc Committee of the International Conference on Kampuc:hea, over wich Senegal has the hooour of presiding, has undertaken oonsulta Hons th is year with a nUnDer of interested Gover nments. The object of those consultations is to reaffirm the abiding coocern of the international oommunity at the situation in Kampuc:hea and to secure the broadest (Mr. Sarre, senegal) possible support for efforts to resolve this. problem. The Committee has stated repeatedly that one of its basic objectives, is to help bring about negotiations among the par ties concerned in keeping wi th the declara tion adopted by the International Conference (.. xampuchea in 1981. On behalf of the member s of the M Hoc Committee :£ should like once again to express our sratitude for the understanding that ha:l been shown to us and for the encouragement we have received in the various countries visited by the .M Roc Committee. Finally, I wish to draw the General Asse~.ly's attention to the annual report of the M Hoo C,')I1l>lIittee (A!OONF.109/ll), Ciated 24 septenber 1986, in which the C\?nmittee reiter ated~ -i ts appeal to those lJemer States which did not p~rticipate in the International Conference to co-operate in any suitable way with the efforts to achieve the goals of the Declaration on Kampuc:hea and the relevant resolutiats of the General Assenbly. It also appeals to all parties concerned to consider steps to overcome the obstacles that have, thus far, stood in the way of a trUly constructive dialogue. It is the hope of the Committee that, in order to facilitate this process, all parties concerned will refrain from taking any action that would further canplica te the situa tion in Kanpuc:hea and jeopardize the chances for a fair and peaceful solution of the problem.- (A/OONF.109/ll, para. 28) Senegal hopes sincerely that this appeal to reasoo will finally be heeded. My COlmtry is convinced that the adoption of a negotiated settlement leading to an independent, neutral, nat-aligned Cant>odia will undoubtedly be of benefit to all parties to the conflict, while taking into account their best interests. SUch a settlement will also make it possible to provide the necessary means and conditions (Nr. Sar re, Senegal) for the lasting peace i!:'d stability, for which the coWluies in the region have for so lC!1g hoped. It can never be over-emphasized that the atti tude of the international comJnlmity on this matter does not arise fran any hostility to a COlmtry or group of COWltr ies, but rather emanates from its determination to find an honourable solution to this ccnflict in keeping with the Ulited Nations Charter and the rules of international law. These are the pr: incipal objectives of draft resolution A/4l/L.2, on which the AsseJlbly has been asked to take action and w.'1ich my COlm try has agreed to suppoct. We hope that this will facilitate the search for Cl solution which, if implemented, will without doubt lead to peace and stability in that regime Prince t0rodom SIHAmUK (Democratic Kampuchea) (int.erpretation from French): The annOWlcement today of the tragic and brutal dea th in an a ir accident of Pres ident sarnora M:>ises Machel of Mozaubique and several of h is colleagues has plWlged us all into the deepest samess. I had the hC!1our to establish ties of friendship with President Mac::hel more than 10 years ago in Peking and we saw each other again about four years ago in Pyongyang. Therefore it is my privilege to ply a glowing tr ibute to him per SC!1ally and to the heroic people of Mozant>ique, whose historic and victorious struggle for natimal liberation synt>olized gloriously the liberation struggle of other oppressed peoples. As an old fighter for the independence of my own COlm try, Call'bodia - KCIllPJchea in Khmer - and a fervent and loyal friend of Africa, I weep for the loss of my brother and companion-at-arms, President Samora Moises Mache1. On this sad occasion, I extend to the Government and the fr iendly people of Mozannique, to the bereaved families of the victims of th is accident and to the President of the Organ iza tion of African tbi ty (OAU) the brotherly sympathy and most heartfelt condolences of my delegation. ~r. sarre, senegal) In January 1979, when it invaded Kanp1c:hea, my COlD try , wi th an army of more than 100,000 men backed by an armada of tanks, heavy artillery pieces and other sophisticated war materials pl:OYided by the SOYiet tbim, the socialist Bepublic of Viet Nam already proclaimed total victory. It arrogantly and solemnly declared to the world at large that i. ts fait aeeaupli was irrevers ible and that, consequently, there was no problem of Kampuc:hea. Today, after almost eight years of war and occupation in Kampuchea, Viet Ham is inextricably bogged down, admits tbat it is hopelessly getting entangled in increasingly serious eoonomic, social and political difficulties, and suffers from a growing isolation in the international arena. This developnent is the result of the conbined pressure increasingly exerted on the ground by our people and our na timal res istance forces whose resolve and pa tr iotism have constantly been galvanized by an ever-growing generous support granted to their just cause by the internatiooal commlmity which, through an ever increasingly overwhelming majority of the Menber States of the united Natioos, votes every year in favour of the resolutions 00 -The Situation in Kcmp.lchea-. This emphasizes the importance of the annual debates and resolutions on the agenda of the General Asserrbly. Indeed, they have greatly cootributed to prevent the illegal occupation of Kampuchea from beooming a fait acconpli, and the violation by Viet Nam of the Charter from being cmdmed. These past eight years of war imposed upon us by Viet Nam have been for all our canpatriots, whether at home or abroad, as many years of the most trying ordeals in our history, but also rich in experiences and lessms for the present as well as for the future of our natioo, through which our natiooal lDity has been forged and tested in the fire of the tesolute and dogged resistance against the Vietnamese arrbition to eliminate our natiooal identity and to annex our country. (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, DellOcr8tic KaEBp1c:hea) Those who have followed our struggle for national survival recogniz,~ that continued progress has been made despi te the many and di'fficult obstacles we have had to OI7ercome. This year, more than in previous years, the armed forces of our coalition governemnt have acnieved significant progress. In my address on 30 8epteJrber last, I had the hooour to brief the General Assellbly on that favourable developnent which w--.; and continues to be echoed widely and unanimously by thl2 media. In point of fact, the large-scale Vietnamese attacks launched during the 1985 dry season along the western border, wi th a great nunber of reinforcements from Viet Nam and mater ials prOl7ided by the SOviet Un ion, have not broken the backbone of our resistance. Not only did the Vietnamese forces meet with a total fiasco in their scheme to seal the border so as to stifle and wipe out our forces operating deep in the interior of the country, but, what is more, they are now irremediably bogged down and harassed day and night througnout the country, ,in particular in the most fertile and densely popula ted cen tral regions, in the Tonle sap Lake area and around the capital city, Phnom Penh. OUr forces are now operating openly and not clandestinely. Our attacks are conci1cted by units in uniform stationed permanently around Phnom Penh and the main prOl7incial towns. The najor aim of our a ttacks is to dismantle the enemy's admin is tra tive, political and military apparatus at all levels in order to liberate the population and the Khmer soldiers and civilians forcibly enlisted by the enemy to serve their colonialist war. OUr successes have gradually deprived the Vietnamese occupiers of the human and material resources they need to hold on to KCIllFlchea. Thos<a successes have encouraged the population and all, whether military or civilian, who have been forced to serve the Vietnamese colonial regime in Phnom Penh, to rise up and join our forces. Day by day, through our military actions on the ground, our (Prince Norodom Sihanol1k, DellDcratic KCIIlplchea) national unity is developing, expanding and strengthening mder the IIDtto: -lQlmers do not fic#' t Kh%!ler s- and -Khmer s un ite to dr ive out ",he Vietnamese occupier s·. If our national resistance forces have been able to intensify their attacks which ha\l'e become more accurate and more deadly deep inside the country and even as far as to the bOl:ders with Viet Nam, it is precisely because of the support, assistance and active participation of the population, Khmer soldiers and civil servants of the puppet Phnom Penh administration, who inform and guide them. The balance of forces on the ground is changing in our favour. AI. though far less numerous and less well-equipped than the enemy, our for:ces have the advantage of several favourable factors~ they are endowed with a lofty spirit of patriotism and are resolved to carry out their struggle for national survival~ they are given growing support and active co-oper3tion by the whole population and by an increasing nunber of Khmer soldiers and civilians of the puppet Phnom Penh admin iste ation. It is with a view to coping w·, 'jl the politico-military situation which has been developing more and more against it that the Vietnamese mili tary high command has been forced to transfer a significant part of its forces from the western border to the interior of the COlDltry, and to replace the Khmer soldiers of the puppet regime it no looger trusts, by Vietnamese forces in order to defend Phnom Penh which is now within striking range of our forces. For the first time since 1979, the Vietnamese forces have been unable to launch their annual dry season offensive. These are as many indications that they have been losing their conbat initiative. Moreover, the morale, health and material situation of their soldiers keep wocsening. According to a report broadcast on 14 August 1986 by Hanoi Radio, the Vietnamese soldiers fighting in Cambodia are "dressed in rags, poorly fed, and mostly disease-ridden ••• ", the Vietnamese aircraft "have to fly through unsafe (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, DellDera tic Kamp1C:hea} Skies'lr '" and have difficulty in findiilg landing sites ••• , to say nothing of the diffeiculties arising from the shortage of fuel •• ,·, while ·enemy activity is aggress ive ..... The fundamental factor of this happy developnent and the main characteristic of the current sit~tion in Kampuchea have been the strengthening and broadening of national unity among all Cambodians as such on the level of patriotic awareness as of action against the Vietnamese occupiers, and on every level of the national community, both at home and abroad. In the country, the population in all provinces has been exasperated by almost eight years of Vietnamese crimes and oppression. I Every day, they see that the t Vietnamese occupiers are their worst enemy, and that the danger of ·Vietnamization" of our country is deadly for our natiaa, culture, civilization and national identity. (Princn Nor~dom Sihanouk, Democratic KCIllp.Jchea) It is because they are well aware of this deadly danger that more and more among the population and even among those working in the puppet Reng Samrin administration have been granting their multiform support and assistance to the armed forces of our Coalition Government, and that Khmer patriots forcibly enlisted by the Vietnamese into the Reng Samrin army rebel, revolt and mutiny, often by whole units, and desert every day. I wish at this stage to auote only a few glaring facts. On 15 December 1985, at Leach in the province of Pursat, 700 Khmer soldiers·from the first and second reqimentR of the second Division of the Phnom Penh regime mutinied against the Vietnamese, captured two. Vietnamese tanks and eliminated several Vietnamese soldiers and officers. Two days later, they were joined by 150 more of their fel1owR. After they ended their mutiny, which was given active support by the population, they returned to their native villages or joined our forces. On 21 April 1986, Reng Samrin's Battalion 507, stationed at Siemreap-Oddar Meanchey, joined our forces with arms and materiel. According to the des~rters themselves, the number of deserters in many units reaches 50 per cent. The more the Vietnamese persist in occupying Karnpuchea, the more will the antagonism of the population towards the Khmer soldiers and civil servants of the puppet regime they have installed in Phnom Penh worsen and increase. Whatever they may do, the Vietnamese will never be able to gag the nationalist and patriotic feelings of the Cambodian people, and still less oppose the dynamics of national resistance, dynamics engendered, sustained and accelerated by the very persistence of their occupation of Kampuchea. The trend of national unity against the Vietnamese occupation, which i~ now irresistible is shored up by continued strengthening of mutual understanding and (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, ~ocratic K8mpuchea) reciprocal confidence, which have led to the uniformity of views and actions within the tripartite Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea. On the ground, the armed forces of the three components of our Government have consolidated their co-operation in their attacks against the enemy. In the heat of their combat against a common enemy, the three patriotic forces, sharing weal and woe, weave their fraternal ties, which are the tokens of our victory. The repeated manoeuvres of our enemies aimed at sowing dissension within the tripartite Coalition Government have only strengthened its conviction that national unity and reconciliation are vital for the survival of the nation, both at present and in the future. The eight-point proposal of 17 March 1986 which I had the honour to present to you in detail in my address of 30 September testifies to this conviction that has led to an identity of views on the political solution to be brought to the problem of Kampuchea and on the future of our country as well. This proposal testifies to our magnanimity, to the utmost limits of our concessions, to our moderation, and to the spirit of conciliation not only among all Cambodians irrespective of their tendencies, but also towards Viet Nam, our aggressor; as well. It constitutes our national charter at the present time, and for the future as well. It depends entirely on Viet Ram - through its agreement to stop its invasion and occupation and to withdraw all its forces from Kampuchea - to clear the way for the participation of the Heng Samrin group, set up and maintained by force by Viet Nam in Phnom Penh, in a auadripartite coalition government of Kampuchea, which would organize free general elections under United Nations supervision. It also depends entirely on Viet Nam whether our two countries, placed side by side for eternity, establish once again sincere relations of friendship and co-operation based on the five principles of peaceful coexistence, on an eaua1 footing, and with mutual respect and reciprocal interests. (Prince Norodom Sihp.nouk, Democratic Kampuche;r-- In the course of the general debate at the current session of the GenE-xal Assembly, a great many delegations were kind enough to do us justice and grant support to our peace plan. It is for l'lle a pr ;.vUege and a pleasure to express to them, on behalf of the Coalition Government and of IWf people, as well as on IWf own behalf, our profoUlid and heartfel t gra ti tude for th is noble support, whi ch has greatly encouraged us to persevere in the achievement of our national charter. The ou,tright rejection of our peace plan by 'l1iet Nam does not at all mean that tilis plan is not realistic and hence without any useful purpose. This is but new proof that the leaders in Hanoi want at all costs to absorb Kanpuc::hea, along wi th laos, into an "Indo-Chin.a Federation". Testimony to this Vietnamese ambition, conceived and worked out by the Vietnamese Commll1ist Party ever since 1930, is more than sufficient. Despite the repeated denials by Hanoi, each day that passes brings new evidence of this insatiable Vietnamese expansiooism. On 28 June last, Heng samrin, the puppe:t chief installed in Phnom Penh, stated~ "We are proud to recall that our Party has taken its roots in the Indochinese Commun ist Par ty ••• ." Moreover, in the par lance used by Viet Nam in every article, in every statement, there is a refe£'ence to the "three Ind:>chinese covntries", to the "Indochinese bloc" or again, to the "Viet Nam-Kampuchea-Laos special relations" - terms that are all ooly eUphemisms for the Vietnamese "Indo-China Federation". The Hanoi authorities. acting as the master, organize and decide everything. The "Conference of Indochinese foreign ministers" or other meet'ings are but masquerades staged by Viet Nam in which the other two act as fa ithful lackeys, repeating whatever is said by the ir lord and mas tel'. It is with the objective of achieving this baleful "Indo-China Federation" that the Hanoi leaders are clinging to Kampuchea at all costs, at the cost of the (Prince tbrodomSihanouk, oemcrattc Kamp.tchea) mourning and ruin tiiey have sown in KmlEQchea and in Viet Nam as well. Baving failed for the psst eight years to ac::hieve this end through military means, the Banoi leaders have been desperately and shamelessly trying to achieve it through diplomatic manoeuvres, with the aim of dividing and conquering, namely, dividing and weakening the natimal resistance forces so as to canpel them to capitulate and acknowledge the Vietnamese fait acx:ompli in Cambodia, and also dividing and weakening the international support fcx our struggle. (Prince Noro..iom Sihanouk, Demcratic KCIIlpu::hea) In that respect, Viet Nam speaks of "negotiations for a penceful settlement", of "national reconciliation between Cambodians", of "respect for the right to self-determination of the Cambodian people", of "an independent, neutral and non-aligned Cambodia", of "annual partial withdrawal" and even "toi:al withdrawal of its occupation forces by 1990", and so forth. It tries to make people believe that it is sincerely conciliatory and flexible and that it has been brought to its senses and agrees at last to comply with the call of the international community for a political solution to the Kampuchean problem. But serious consideration of those statements proves the contrary and shows the perfidy of Viet Nam, which in this case uses the same ~anguage to cover up a complete divergence of views by the parties to the conflict. By "negotiations for a political settlement", the Hanoi authorities mean negotiations between what they call "the three Indo-Chinese countries" - that is, the Vietnamese Indo-China Federation - and the members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), as a third party. That is a trap which the ASEAN countries could never fall into. Moreover, one cannot but ask how Viet Nam will be able to reach a political solution to the problem of Kampuchea while it obstinately refuses to negotiate with the only party against which it is fighting - namely, the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea. Viet Nam speaks of "national reconciliation between Cambodians", but it demands that one of the three components of our Coalition Government be eliminated in advance and that the leaders of the other two surrender, hands in the air, to the so-called People's Republic of Kampuchea". This Vietnamese-style national reconciliation actually aims at destroying the Government which has been re~ognized by the united Nations and the international community as the sole leqal and legitimate Government of Cambodia. If Hanoi were to succeed in carrying out this (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Democratic Kampuchea) BCT/mh A/4l/PV.42 37 manoeuvre, Viet Nam and its allies could assert that henceforth there was no reason for the United Nations to continue considering the problem of Kampuchea and that, conseauently, the seat of Kampuchea at the United Nations should ipso facto revert to the puppet Phnom Penh regime. The Vietnamese manoeuvre is therefore manufactured out of whole cloth and cannot deceive international public opinion. The Vietnamese statement about "respect for the right to self-determination of the Cambodian people" is only vain rhetoric, for that people will be able to exercise that inalienable right only after the withdrawal of all Vietnamese forces from its country, Cambodia. As for the Vietnamese proclamation that the "People's Kampuchea" of the Phnom Penh puppets is "independent, neutral and non-aligned", the least we can say is that Viet Nam has a notion of values that is Quite different from that of the international community. For everybody is aware of the links which chain this puppet regime to the "Vietnamese chariot", within the framework of "special solidarity" and "special friendship" - euphemisms for the Vietnamese "Indo-China Federation". Lastly, Viet Nam's statements on an annual partial withdrawal and a total withdrawal of its forces by 1990 are mere propaganda which can no longer deceive anyone. We have said on many occasions - and world pUblic opinion agrees with us - that the annual partial "withdrawals" not only are troop rotatiolls but, even more, are stratagems to conceal annual reinforcements of troops sent from viet Nam to make up for the increasing number of casualties and even strengthen the Vietnamese occupation army in Kampuchea, now facing the irresistible rising tide of Khmer national resistance. As for the so-called total withdrawal by 1990, the magazine Asiaweek in its issue of 3 August 1986 contained an article entitled "Viet Nam's 1990 Question", from which I quote the following: (Prince Norcdom Sihanouk, Democratic Kampuchea) -- (spoke in English) "As the 1986 rains qet under way, this year's offensive seems to have achieved much less than the last, and the four-year pull-out deadline for the Vietnamese looks ever more questionab1ew• (continued in French) Hoang Bich Son, the Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister, recently told Asiaweek: (spoke in English) "We will conclude our withdrawal by 1990, but we have all along said that if the situation reauires it and the Kampuchean Government" - that is, the puppet regime in Phnom Penh - "deems it necessary, we will discuss the coming back of our troops. And we have made a promise that we would come back if reauested". (continued in French) I have already had occasion to point out that Viet Nam has not yet left Cambodia but it is already preparing its return. In the past, the Vietnamese leaders have shown the world that, for them, making promises and keeping them are two different things. Indeed, they have never kt~t their commitments, whether t I' signed or "solemnly pledged". This is testified to by the agreements signed in Geneva in 1954 and in 1962, on Laos, and in Paris in 1973; by the "solemn" declaration made in 1967 to respect the territorial integrity of Kampuchea within its present borders; and, again, by the promise made by Pham Van Dong in September 1978 to all the ASEAN member States that Viet Nam would not invade Cambodia. Viet Nam's solemn promises and commitments have shown that, for Hanoi, diplomacy is only a means to serve its strategic military objectives, within the framework of i~s expansionist policy. Today, under the growing and combined (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Democratic K8mpuchea) pressure of the national resistance forces and the international community, it is in Viet Nam's interest to make such promises in an attempt to deceive world pUblic opinion. But Viet Nam is not ready, nor will it be ready between now and 1990, to give up its ambition to absorb Kampuchea into its "Indo-China Federationft , unless it is final 1.y compelled to do so by the struggle of the people of Kampuchea and by international pressure. The Soviet Union can lend its assis~ance to the achievement of that end, for it is well known today that Viet Nam would not have been able to carry on its aggression against and occupation of Kampuchea without the huge amount of soviet aid. That is why we ask the soviet union, a permanent member of the Security Council, responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security under the united Nations Cha~ter, to heed the call of reason and bring Viet Nam to its senses. In Asia and the Pacific - more especially in South-East Asia - until the Soviet Union abandons its support for Viet Nam's policy of aggression and expansion, and in particular for Viet Nam's occupation of Kampuchea, it will never succeed in convincing anyone r· ~~s desire to establish friendly relations and remove what it calls "sterile suspicions and mistrust". It is not by repeating the same rhetoric about peace, disarmament, friendship, and so forth, that it will prove its good faith. And it is not by evading the problem of Kampuchea created by the Vietnamese in~asion and occupation that it will contribute to restoring peace, security and stability in South-East Asia. In order to perpetuate the Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea and consolidate its "Inde-China Federation", Viet Nam has been conducting a large-scale propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting the patriotic Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea and at glorifying the puppet Heng Samrin regime installed in Phnom Penh. This campaiqn of disinformation ceaselessly praises the marvellous rebirth of what is called the People's Republic of L?mpuchea, its "economic, cultural and social development" and peace and security prevailing throughout the whole country - that is the ~whole cake" as called by the Vietnamese minister Nguyen Co Thach, which is placed under the control of the Quisling Phnom Penh regime. Reacting to this ca~aign of disinformation, any person of common sense wonders why, if that is the case, the Hanoi authorities refuse to withdraw from Karnpuchea about 200,000 of their soldiers who for eight years have drained all hUiili.Ul and material resources of their country and turned Viet Nam, once a model in the strugqle for national independence, into an outcast of the international community. Why should the Soviet union continue to bear this burden of aid to Viet Nam, which year after year becomes heavier and heavier? Viet Nam will never be able to answer that question without contradicting itself, for the truth is auite different. I would not mind t: .,: arrogant claim of the Vietnamese Foreign Minister, Nguyen Co Thach, that the Phnom Penh puppets control the Cambodia "cake", for everyone knows that they control nothing at all, not even themselves, everything being decided and made by Vietnamese advisers and the Vietnamese army of occupation, yet the latter control only the main towns and some sections of lines of communication, along which they have forced Khmer villagers to live in strategic hamlets surrounded by several mine-infested barriers, which prevent the inhabitants from engaging in agricultural production through fear of coming into contact with our resistance forces. Mme. Marie Alexandrine Martin, a French ethnologist and naturalist at the National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, presented the situation in Vietnamese-occupied Cambodia in a nutshell: "In the countryside, as well as in the cities, arrests are daily occurences. Torture (beatings, el~ctric shocks, plastic bags nver the head ••• ) is the rule. It is impossible to estimate the number of political prisoners in Kampuchea today. In Phnom Penh, between 1980 and 1984 no less than 6,200 people were imprisoned in the two jails belonging to the Ministry of National Defence and 16,800 in the six jails run by the Ministry of the Interior. In both cases the real directors of the jails are Vietnamese with 'puppet' Khmer directors to keep up appearances ••• " Those facts were confirmed by the New York based Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights and Amnesty International of London, which in its September 1986 file on torture issued a detailed report on the widespread practice of torture, including torture by Vietnamese "experts", in Vietnamese-occupied Cambodia. Mme. Marie Alexandrine Martin further said: "Last year, Khmer peasants arriving at the Thai border were crushed by extreme poverty, despair and grief. 'Today it is worse', say newcomers. "The town-dwellers, many of them from Phnom Penh, flee their country because it is now so easy to become a 'suspect'. All it takes is an 'inappropriate' gesture or the inadvertent use of the wrong word. One is always under the threat of the unlikeliest denunciation. Civil servants also flee their homeland because they do not want to die while being sent away to forced labour. Refusal to participate in the work for 'National Defence' as (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Democratic Kampuchea) forced labour along the Thai-Kampuchean border is called in Phnom Penh, means imprisonment. People from Phnom Penh who are privately employed pay enormous taxes. They, too, are coming to the botder in large numbers after closing their stalls in the market, or the little shop set up in their home. 'It is no longer possible to earn one's living unless one has a relative who travels and trades at the border. Even so it is hard, so very hard •••• , they say. "Vietnamese settlers do much better. They pay low taxes~ they are not enlisted for forced labour. Their ethnic origins.put them above the law in any quarrel or dispute with the Kampucheans. They are the privileged citizens in a country whose yery own people feel more and more alienated ••• "In 1985 a new identity card was imposed all over the country. It was supposed to prevent independent workers from settling illegally in the cities. Phnom Penh is protected by an important Vietnamese garrison and inhabited by at least 250,000 Vietnamese civilian settlers. "As for the Khmer civil servants, their number will drop further as auite a few of them keep fleeing to the border and are replaced by Vietnamese. That is already the case at the Ministry of National Defence. Little by little, low-ranking Khmer bureaucrats have been sent to the army and replaced by Vietnamese. Several high-ranking posts in various ministries are held by Khmers who fled to Hanoi in 1954, after the Geneva Agreement. They are fluent in Vietnamese, and are married to Vietnamese women ••• " This two-fold increase of Vietnamese experts which was under way at that time seems to be effective almost everywhere ••• Any project prepared by a Khmer must be scrutinized by Vietnamese experts, who correct it and give it the final touch prior to any approval by the Prime Minister and President of the RepUblic - respectively, the puppets Hun Sen and Heng Samrin installed in (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Democratic K8mpuchea) Phnom Penh. Even for festivities in pagodas permission must be given by Vietnamese advisers in charge of festivities and entertainments. At the central office of Vietnamese experts, known as Office A-50, it is the expert in charge of Party Affairs who has the last say, even over the Chairman of the Office, Le Dinh, formerly President of Ho Chi Min City, whose main task is to execute the (VietnamQse Communist) Party's orders." Since 1984 the Vietnamese have rounded up and every year sent ~undreds of thousands of men and women to the western border to carry out for a period of two to three months para-military labour, such as transporting foodstuffs and ammunition for the Vietnamese forces, clearing forests, building roads, detecting and laying mines, digging trenches, raising wall barriers with a view to cutting off our supply lines and stifling our forces in the interior of the country. Several tens of thousands of Cambodians, men and women, have thus been killed by mines or have died from malaria and other diseases, and several thousands of others have returned mutilated to their villages£ That forced labour has disastrously diverted the larger part of manpower from rice production. Actually, the "miraculous rebirth" of Cambodia placed under Vietnamese domination means the transformation of a rice-exporting country into an international rice beggar. In 1984 the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated the rice shortage as being as high as 177,000 tons~ in 1985 the world Food Programme estimated it at 400,000 tons. (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Democratic Kampuchea) The Vietnamese propaganda machine is cynical, for it is not ashamed of the contradictions that reveal its perfidy. In its attempts t? legalize its invasion and occupation of Kanpuchea, Viet Nam speaks of "miraculous rebirth". But when it needs aid to fped its occupation forces, it spreads the news that the people of Kanpuchea face a serious rice shortage and orda:s the Phnom Penh puppets to beg for international aid. Should it be grantted, this aid would feed only the Vietnamese occupation troops for:, as in previous years, it would not be distributed to the needy Khmer population • Forced labOur, famine and the most savage forms of repression, in addition to Vietnamese attacks, have. in the past eight years already claimed the 1 ives of hundreds of thousands of Camodians and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee their ancestral lands and native villages to seek protection in the areas controlled by our Government, or refuge on Thai territory. To replace them, the Hanoi au thori ties have already sent more than 700,000 Vietnamese to settle on the most fertile land, in towns and along the rivers. The objective is to raise this nurrber to 2 million wi thin the next four or five years. Thousands of new families keep arriving every month. According to Rne. Marie Alexandrine Martin~ "Senior civil servants report that the new settlers from Viet Nam come in dur ing the night" - as was reported by refugees last year - "in large groups, wi thout the knowledge of the Khmer (puppe t] au thod ties. The appropr la te department of the Revolutionary People's Conmittee in the capital has to hold meetings in the middle of the night to decide immedia tely where they should go so that other people do not know where they have come from. The inhabitants, if at first unaware of these arrivals, soon realize the situation when they see th~ new houses in which the Vietnamese live, which are buil t on what a few days earlier was waste ground. In the spring of 1985, people living in Phnom (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Democratic Kanpu:hea) Penh were simply dr iven away from their houses and replaced by the Vietnamese. They were sent into the countryside. SOme of them managed to escape and reach the border. New identi ty cards have been in c ircula tion since the last census; identification checks and raids are frequent. Everything seems to be planned gradually to turn Phnom Penh into a Vietnamese town with only the necessary Khmer administrative persCI\nel." I would add that the names of the main streets and squares in Phnom Penh have already been changed or translated into Vietnamese. Lastly, several so-called agreements and treaties have allegedly been signed between the Vietnamese boss and his Phnom Penh lackeys in all fields - economic, financial, social, cultural, technical, frCl\tier, and so forth. Those "agreements" and "treaties" are actually farces of the same type as the "meetings" or "conferences" of the three so-called Indochinese countries, aimed on the Cl\e hand a t showing the wor ld the legi timacy of the puppet Phnom Penh regime and on the other at laying the so-called legal foundations of the gradual absorption of Kampuchea by Viet Nam. A concrete instance was provided by the 1983 s~alled border agreements which shi fted the mad time border between Kanpuchea and Viet Nam as indicated since 1939 by the Brevie line and gave Viet Nam a large tract of the well-known oil-bearing Khmer maritime territory. As for the land borders, the Hanoi author ities have since the beginning of the invasion shifted the boundary marks from 3 t05 kilometres within Kampuchea. That is the actual situation in Kampuchea this year. Viet Nam has proclaimed that the si tuation is irreversible, namely, that it has not the slightest intention of ever allowing the people of Kampuchea to exercise their right to / self-determina tion or ever all~lin9 KariiPJchea alce again to become an independent, free, united, peaceful, neutral and nm-aligned country. HCMever, since 1979, (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, DeIlDCt'atic Kcrnpuchea) despite ~O'l1iet aid estimated at $tB 6 mUlion a day, the Vie-namese foeces have been ir remediably bog<Jed down in Kampuchea. To say the least, the sibJation does not appear to be as irreversible as Viet Ham claims. Despi te the ever-increasing and inextr icable difficulties it is facing in Kanpuchea, at home and in the international arena, Viet Ham remins intransigent and inflexible. This stand shows that Viet Nam is in Canbodia, as it is in Laos, with the iJ)tention of remining there foe ever, in keeping with the expansiooist, colcnialist tradition of North Viet Nam, which, in its. insatiable southward thrust in quest of ever grea ter ·vital B space to serve its ecooomic and Bnuui tionalB interests, already in the past absorbed the Islamic Kingdom of Chmnpa to form the present Central Viet Nam, and then 65,000 square kilometres of our territory of Lower Canbodia to form the present SOuth Viet Nam. Because of this Vietnamese strategic amitien, we foresee a leng struggle, filled with sacrifice, similar to our past struggle against colooialism, particularly since this new imperialism is nuch more savage and perfidious. In the face of the vital stake of the survival of our people, our nation, our culture and our civilizatioo, whose woodrous monuments of Angkor have become the her itage of mankind, we, the Khmer, have no other means of salvatien than to unite and cootinue our patriotic struggle. Freedom is the supreme value to which every individual, people and nation has an equal right. Viet Nam cannot, and will never be able to, deny Kanpuchea this right, nuch less the sacred right of its people and nation to wage its struggle by every means available to it, including the use of arms, in order to reCO'l1er this supreme and inalienable value. For the sake of our survival, we are resolved to per severe in our effor ts constantly to develop and strengthen our na Henal ooi ty and achieve na tional reconciliation by rejecting the elimination of anyone or any party, least of all (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Del'lDcra tic Kanplchea) one of the present three partners in our Coalition Government of Democratic Rampuchea. Moreover, the three partners are more than ever determined to strengthen their unity and, after their nation is liberated, devote themselves together, in national union and reconciliation, to the tasks of the development and defence of Kampuchea. From now on we are ready to welcome new partners, including those which today are installed by Viet Nam, but which, as soon as the Vietnamese forces withdraw, will agree to work together with us for the restoration, development and prosperity of an independent, united, peaceful, neutral and non-aligned Kampuchea, with a liberal and democratic regime that respects human rights. {Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Democratic Rampuchea} National mion is and will be our mjor' weapon against the enemy and the essential factor of our victory, that is, of our national survival for the present as well as for the future. It is not surprising that the enemy cmtinues to manoeuvre to pcevent its developnent. We will never let the enemy achieve those aims or those manoeuvres to succeed, for they would mdermine not ooly our efforts in the struggle, but also the restoration of peace, secur.ity and stability in south-East Asia. We consider our policy of national union both as a natiooal patr iotic duty and as an obliga tion to the international ootmlunity. If there is an irreversible element in today's Kampuchea situation, it is precisely the developnent and the consolidation of our national unity. And, l!lhether Viet Nam likes it or not, we will succeed in building up an independent, united, peaceful, neutral and noo-aligned Kampuchea, within the framework of national reconciliation, for this is a vital issue for all of us CaIlbodians. Our eight-point proposal has demonstr ated our sincer ity in this act of fa ith and also our will to go as far as we can along the road leading to concilia tion and peace, for we want a political settlement to the Kampuchean problem, a settlement that will be just and lasting for all - for us, the victim, as well as for Viet Nam, the aggressor. We believe that magnanimity consists in doing justice and not in asking for justice. As a matter of fact, although the Vietnamese leaders are, by their aggression against Kampuchea, war criminals, just as were Hitler and his Nazi disciples, we will not ask for revenge, punishment or war damages - I emphasize, no war damages. Rather, we propose to establish with them good rela tions based 00 peaceful coexistence for the well being of our two peoples. It is not possible for us to go beyond the concessions already made unless we accept to offer our oountry to Viet Nam on a silver platter, which would be a total negation of eight years of struggle which has been developing very favourably for (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, DeIlDcra tic Kamplchea) us, thanks also to the substantial contribution of all peace and justice-loving ootmtries, peoples and persooalities throughout the world, and this United Nations General Assemly, who have given us their cootinued and enduring sUpp<Xt. '1'0 all of them, I should like to renew once again, on behalf of our people, our Coalition Government and on my own behalf, our deepest gratitude. Never will we forget this noble and invaluable support granted us at the most difficult time in our histocy. Every year, the ever growing nunber of statements on the problem of Kampuchea, both in the general debate and dur ing its oonsideration, the ever-increasing nunber of co-sponscxs of draft resolutions and the increasingly overwhelming majority of votes in their favour have greatly contributed to maintaining at an ever-higher level the mcxale of our people and our fighters. In the unequal struggle they have been waging with heroism against an enemy far more powerful, cruel and cunning than the former colooialists and imperialists, a good morale is a sharp and effective weapon and an important factor .for victory. I am particularly happy to renew the expression of our deep and eterna;L gratitude to the six member States of the Association of SOuth-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) lIlhich, through their noble and stroog support for our struggle, have giv.en proof of initiatives and perseverance in the search for a just and lasting solution that would lead to the end of the Vietnamese aggression and occupa tion in Kampuchea, would allOll Kampuchea aga in to become an independent, united, peaceful, neutral and non-aligned State, would cootain Vietnamese deeply rooted expansiooism and turn South-East Asia into a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality. 'lbdayand in the future, Kamp1chea and its people will cootinue to develop their oordial ties of friendship and solidarity with the ASFAN cOtmtries and to bring their active/participation to the achievement of that noble goal. (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Demcratic Kamp1c:hea) We feel that we cannot reiterate enough' our most profound and cordial gratitude to our neighbo~.Y:r, the Kingdom of Thailand, which has greatly contributed to the survival of our nation by showing its generosity and canpassion with which it welcomes in refugee camps hundreds of thousands of our fellow nationals fleeing the massacres and repressions of the Vietnamese occupiers. Neither the pressures and intimidations from Hanoi nor the massacres and destructions perpetrated by the Vie tnamese occupation forces in Kampuc:hea against the Tha i border popula tion dur ing their numerous and annual incur sims into Thai ter ritor ies have succeeded in shaking this exemplary generosity and canpassion. Quite the contrary, they have only strengthened the sincere and fraternal ties of fr iendship between our two Governments, countries and peoples, Kamp1chea and Thailand, which are very close to each other in terms of their history, civilization, culture, language, religion and c'Ustoms. We would also like to express our deepest grati tude to the People's Republic of China for: its stroog, unconditional and permanent assistance without which our struggle could not have developed so favourably. The sincere and many-faceted aid it has been granting to our struggle against the Vietnamese expansiooist designs testifies to its determination to ",-ark for peace and security in Asia and in the world. This has strengthened our conviction that Viet Nam will never be able to realize its dream of absorbing Kampuc:hea into an "Indo-China Federation". To our secretary-General, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, whose recent unaniroous reappointment is gratifying to us all, I wish to reiterate our warm congratulations and our profound gratitude for his tireless and deserving efforts in performing with dedication the mandate entrusted to him by the Charter and the relevant resolutions on the situation in Kamp1chea. If he has not yet been successful, it is not because he lacks initiatives or perseverence but rather because of the (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Denocratic Kamp1chea) Vietnamese intransigence and manoeuvres.. Sis dedication to and his faith in the Charter and role of our Organization in maintaining international peace and security have reinforced the confidence we have abi&Ys had in him.. I would also like to express our high appreciation for the noble efforts made by all of his colleagues in order to find a polltical solution to the problem of KCIIlplchea wi th in the framework of the relevant resolutioos adopted by the General Assembly. (Prince tbrOdom Sihanouk, Demcratic Kanpud'iea) I should like also to express our profound gratitude to all those countries which have been willing to grant asylum in their territories to hundreds of thousands of Cambodians who have been compelled to flee their homeland. Our warmest thanks also go to all the donor countries for their financial and material contributions and to the various united Nations organs for their activities in distributing those contributions and saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of our compatriots displaced throughout the country, near the Thai border or taking refuge in Thailand. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all the international humanitarian assistance agencies and to all those persons who take an interest in the fate of the Cambodian people and who offer the hand of assistance to my people. Lastly, I am happy to repeat our deep appreciation and warm thanks to Mr. Gratz, President of the International Conference on Kampuchea and to all the members of its Ad Hoc Committee, in particular to its president, Ambassador Sarre of Senegal. Through their untiring accivities and their missions to various countries in Asia, Africa, America and Europe they have greatly contributed to a bette~ understanding of the problem of Kampuchea, have aroused and maintained the international community's concern about this problem, and have thereby strengthened international support for our just struggle. Through their immeasurable misfortunes and sufferings, which have lasted all too long, our people and our Coalition Government are greatly comforted by having throughout the world many sincere and dedicated friends who have for almost eight years given them firm, steadfast ?nd ever broader support. Never will we fo~get this invaluable support, so vital for our survival. We will continue to do whatever we can to deserve and strengthen it. It is quite clear that without such support our struggle would not have been able to develop on such a scale and it could never have been successful. In the gee-political situation of my country, (Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Democratic Kampuchea) next to a powerful neighbour with an insatiable appetite, this international support constitutes for us, both now and in the future, a continuing and vital necessity without which we would not be able to build up an independent Cambodia, which is united, peaceful, neutral, non-aligned and prosperous. Mr. president, before concluding, allow me, on behalf of my people and my Coalition Government and on my own behalf, once more to express the sincere respect and high esteem we have for you, and also to reiterate solemnly, in this International Year of Peace, our faith in the United Nations, whose noble ideals, enshrined in the Charter, and whose support, constitute a great moral force for all the small and weak countries like Kampuchea which have to fight for their survival and their freedom in defence of their honour and national dignity. In expressing these profound sentiments, I should like to make an earnest appeal to all the delegations of peace-loving and justice-loving Member States to lend their noble and effecti~e support to draft resolution A/4l/L.2, sponsored by 60 countries. We are confident that once again they will express their determination to defend peace, freedom and justice in the world and thereby to strengthen the sacred principles of the Charter. I wish -to extend to all of them, in advance, my profound gratitude and that of our people, our fighters and our Coalition Government.

I now call on the representative of Singapore, who will also introduce draft resolution A/4l/L.2. Mr. YEO (Singapore): It is with deep sorrow that we learned of the tragic event involving President Machel and some of his senior colleagues. My delegation would like to associate itself with the sentiments expressed by you, Mr. President, and other speakers this morning. On behalf of the Government and people of Singapore, I should like to convey our sincere condolences to the Government and people of Mozambiaue on this tragic loss. (Pr~~ce Norodom Sihanouk, Democratic Kampl~hea) It has been said that if the heavens c~uld weep Kampuchea would never know drought. This country used to be a oymbol of peace ar~ harmony. It has, unfortunately, become a modern-day symbol of continuous tragedy and suffering. There have ~een basically three phases in Kampuchea's sUffering, the first being the civil war between 1970 and 1975 and the second the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1978. What is perhaps less well known is that the latest phase of Kampuehea's sUffering, the result of Viet Nam's invasion and occupation of Kampuchea, has lasted almost as long as the first two phases combined. This single fact highlights Viet Nam's cruelty in prolonging the sUffering of the Kampucheans. It is truly tragic that we have to meet here once again to discuss the auestion of Kampuchea. For seven years in a r~~ ~~ have adopted resolutions calling upon Viet Nam to withdraw its forces from Kampuchea and make Kampuchea a free and independent nation again. Viet Nam's response, reiterated only recently in this hall by the Vietnamese Minister, Vo Oong Giang, has been to say that these resolutions are "erroneous". It is unfortunate that Viet Nam has so little respect for the views of the international community or the united Nations. My delegation is, however, gratified that after eight years the international community's response has been that it will persevere with its efforts to persuade Viet Nam to withdraw from Kampu~hea. We have to persevere for two fundamental reasons: first, because we have a moral obligation to end the 16 years of nightmare and sUffering for the Kampucheans and, secondly, because the international community has to demonstrate that no nation can be exempted from the principles of international law. We must prove that no State, not even viet Nam, can be allowed to violate these fundamental principles. If Viet Nam succeeds, other aggressors might be encouraged, and that could make the world a more • dangerous place for small States. (Mr. Yeo, singapore) It is perhaps inevitable that wi th the passage of time we become desensi tized to a problem. The human psyche is incapable of remaining permanently engrossed in the suffering of any ale people; our attention gets distracted. we are fatigued by compassion. Inevitably, Kampuchea's suffer ing begins to recede into the background. Th is lack of public a ttention to Kamp.1chea·s problems should not bl ind us to the fact that, in some ways, the Kampuch'eans are suffer ing more today than they have in the last 16 years. Let me just quote to you a few passages from a recent book by Ftizabeth Beeker who, as Viet Narn knows, has been a true and credible wi tness of events in Kamp.1chea. In her recent book, '''When the war is OVer", she descr ibed the nature of the Vienamese occupation of Kampuchea~ "Each year that control has produced humiliating orders from the Vietnamese overlords. Although Kampuchea does not produce enough rice to feed its own population, it is a:equired to send rice and fish to Viet Nam. Vietnamese ...s becoming the second language in Government offices. The nunber of new Vietnamese settlers rises each year, following the );attern set hundreds of years ago when the Vietnamese settled in what is now South Viet Nam. First come the Vietnamese equ ivalent of carpetbaggers, petty merchants who now inhabit entire quarters of Phonm Penh. Then come the farmers and fishermen. The farmers settled in disp.1ted territory near the Vietnamese-Canbodian border, further blurring the divide. The fishermen moved up the waterways and are now clustered as far west as the Great Lake. If the pattern holds, the next group to settle will be demobilized Vietnamese soldiers who are given land in return for pacifying Canbodia." Having perpetuated the Cambodian suffering for so long, it is shameless - and I am only using the word that Minister Vo Dong Giang used several times in his speech - shameless for Viet Nam to pretend that it is rescuing the Cantlodian peopl!" from suffer i09. (Mr. Yeo, Singapore) Viet Nam has also given lectures here on previous human rights ahuses in Kampuchea. Let mn auote from a recent report by Amnesty International, a report entitled "File on Torture" dated September 1986, which documents the involvement of Vietnamese experts in the continuing torture of Kampucheans: "Vietnames~ 'experts' are reported to have participated in or been present during torture at these PRK centres, especially thoe~ at the provincial level and above." (A/4l/70l, p. 3) If we recall that Viet Nam defended the record of the Khmer Rouge at meetings of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1977 and 1978, these reports of Vietnamese atrocities should not surprise us. I am afraid that there were many other misleading elements in Minister Vo Dong Giang's speech to the General Assembly. In an effort to divert attention away from its brutal invasion and occupation of Kampuchea, Viet Nam has spread rumours that "peace is at hand" in Karnpuchea. Mr. VO Dong Glang said: "Developments in and around Southeast Asia have shown that confrontation is step by step being replaced by dialogue and the differences are gradually being narrowed". Viet Nam has also announced its own proposals for a settlement of the Kampuchean problem and declared that "the withdrawal of the Vietnamese volunteer troops from Kampuchea ••• will be completed by the year 1990~. Since I fear that this Vietnamese announcement may mislead many observers into believing that Vie~ Narn is ready to withdraw frQm Kampuchea, let me explain Viet Nam's tactics. We live today in an age where colonialism and imperialism are no longer fashionable. The new colonialists and imperialists no longer trumpet the results of their aggression, hut pretend to be conforming to modern principles of international law. Hypocrisy, they say, is the compliment that vice pays to virtue. Viet Nam, I fear, is being totally hypocritical. (Mr. Yeo, Singapore) To \I1derstand Viet Nam's proposals, let us consider what our reaction would be if SOuth Africa made exactly the same proposals. o:lncerning Namibia. Both SOuth Africa and Viet Nam are occupying territories in violation of tllited N:ltions resolutions. Both have made ingenious attempts to justify their occupation. What would our reaction be if tomorrow SOU th Africa announced that it was prepared to withdraw its troop; from Nafl.libia in 1990, but only if the so-called internal administration in WinChoek ,.,as not threatened by Namibia's nationalist forces? And would this offer of withdrawal be credible if SOuth Africa added a condition that these troops should be allowed to return to Namibia at the request of the so-called internal administration in Windhoek? This is precisely what Viet Nam is proposing when it offers to wi thdraw its forces from Kamp.1C:hea. It should not therefore come as a surpr ise that Viet Nam's proposals have been received with great scepticism in SOu th-East Asia and all around the world. My delegation firmly believes that if Viet Nam is sincerely interested in finding a peaceful solution to the Kamp.1cbean problem, it should speak directly to the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, the legitimate representative of the Kampucbean people. N::ltwithstanding Viet Nam's continued intransigence, the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea p.1t forward to Viet Nam on 17 March 1986 a reasonable eight-point proposal for a poli tical settlement of the Kampuchean problem. The eight points have been outlined in the text which I have circula ted, so ~ shall not proceed to quote them. The Associa tion of SOuth-Eas t As ian Na tions (ASEAN) countr ies have announced their support for this eight-point proposal because it contains at least two new ideas. First, Democratic Kampuchea is prepared to accept a phased rather than an immediate withdrawal of Vietnamese troops. 5ecoodly, to prolOOte national reconciliation following this withdrawal, representatives of the Heng samr in regime (Mr. Yeo, singapore) will be allowed to participate in a quadripartite government. We are pleased to note that the international community has also responded positively to these proposals, which have demonstrated the flexibility and open-mindedness of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea. unfortunately, Viet Nam has rejected outright the eight-point proposal. If I have spoken at length about the sUfferings of the Kampuchean people, I have done so because I believe that our concern for the Kampucheans should be the primary reason for o~r continued involvement in the Kampuchean issue. However, the outcome of the Kampuchean issue will also have implications for all of us, especially the smaller States of the United Nations. (Mr_ Yeo, Singapore) we DIet here last week to consider the financial crisis of the O1i ted Nations Most of us agreed that what the United Nations faced was not only a financial crisis but also a political crisis arising from the failure of some Mellber States to abide by the obligations of the Charter. we are not surpr ised to see the major Powers oodermining the O1ited Nations. However, we are surprised that Viet Nam has oonu ibuted to this process by refusing to accept the moral author ity of the United Nations. By selectively accepting or rejecting resolutions, Viet Nam has torn large holes in the tbited Nations f:1b::ic of =:al authUi:it"j CiJ'id thrOUgh these holes others, like the SOUth African racists, have also escaped from the mOt'al authority of this great Organization. Singapore has not been alQ'le in expressing its ooncer n over the decl ine of the moral authodty of the united Nations. The MoYement of Non-Aligned COlUluies has consistently reaffirmed its faith in the Charter of the United Nations and called upon all its Memer States to respect the Charter and thited Nations resolutions. As one of the members of the ~vement of Non-Aligned Countries, Viet Nam has often declared its commitment to respect the decisions of the M<wement. If it is truly oolllllitted to the fibvellent and its goals, Viet Nam could begin by helping to implement the O1i ted Na tions resolu tion at KC!lUp.lchea. Regrettably, without waiting to listen to the views expressed by States MeRbers of the O1ited Nations, Viet Nam has already declared that any resolution resulting from today's debate will be "null and void". I refer to the letter from the Permanent Representatives of Laos and Viet Ham (1\/41/712), dated 15 October 1986. I wonder whether our colleagues from Laos and Viet Nam have paused to consider the considerable damage that cotJ1d be dooe to the mOt'al and legal credibility of the United Nations if every delegatioo here decided to follow Viet Nam's example and accept or reject tl1ited Nations resolutions at will? ltlat (Mr. Yeo, Singap?re) mcr:al or legal authority would Olited Nations resolutions have if we, the MeJlber States, show no respect for the..? As Singapore is the current Chairman of the standing ConIIIittee, of the Association of SOUth-East Asian &1tiors, 1 have the hmour of introwcing this year's draft r esolutioo on Kampuchea (A/41/L. 2), da ted 10 Oc tober 1986. In addi tion to the 54 co-sponsa:s listed in the draft resolution, six other countries have co-sponsored the draft resolution. They are Belize, Cameroon, Chile, Dominica, Raiti and Mauritius. The main purpose of the draft resolution is to spell out the key elements for a comprehensive political settlellent of the Kampuc:nean problem. As these' elements are in cmformi ty wi th the pr inc! ples of the united Nations Charter, we urge Viet Nam to support such a comprehensive political settlement. We have always mainta ined that Viet Nam, as one of the countr les of SOuth-East Asia, has a legitimate interest in Kampuchea. Viet Nam has the right to expect that Kampuchea, which is its neighbour, should respect its independence, scwereic:Jlty and territorial integrity. Viet Nam has the right to expect that Kampuchea should pur sue a policy of peaceIand good-neighbour liness towards it. Viet Nam has the right also to d~mand that no outside Power should use KaRlpuchea as a base for stE»versim and aggression against Viet Nam. On all these points we would agree wi th our Vietnamese colleagues. By the same token, however, we should point out that Kampud'lea also has the right to demand and expect that Viet Naa should also observe the same pr inciples and nonlS. This is the p:eaise upon which our draft resolution is based. In his report to the General Asserrbly on this question, the 5ecretary-General has rei tera ted that a poll tical settlement "will have to be consistent with the basic purposes and principles of thP. Charter of the thited Nations". (1\/41/707, para. 20) (Hr. Yeo, Singapore) Be added: -I am convinced that it can only be reached through a ~ocess of genuine negotiations without pre-ecnditions.- (Ibid, para. 20) We urge Viet Nam to heed the appeal of the 5ecretarynoGeneral and enter into genuine negotiations with the Coalition GoIrernment of Democratic Kalpuchea without pre~onditions. By voting for the d,taft resolution before us, the Members of the United Nations will be encouraging Viet Na.m to join the search foe peace, ~'lich we hope will lead to an early anc'J comprehensive pllitical settlement of the Kampuchean problem. Sir John T9':JMSON (thited Kingdom): I speak fir st as the rApl'esenta tive of the Ulited King&cn. In this capacity I should like to express my delegation's sense of shock an·a dismay at the terrible news we received this morning of the dea th of ais Excellency President sallcxa M;u:bel. Not cnly was he the arc;hi tect of his COtmtrv's indeplndence, but he made a great contribution to the cause of peace in southern Africa, both during the Lancaster House Caaference in La'ldon and by the signature of the Ycomati Accord. Bis loss is made all the more poiC}'lant by the fact that we were hmoured to receive him twice in Londaa, in 1983 and in 1985. I OJr support for R)zubique is manifested in a nurrber of areas, inclUding development assistance, emergency and food aid, and will caatinue. We extend our sympathy to all those bereaved as a result of this tragic accident. I now have the hmour to speak on behalf of the 12 Sta tes of th~ European COCllBlmity. The Cambodian problem has become distressingly familiar to this k.lsembly. EOr seven successive years, an oyerwhelming najority of the nations represented here have called upon Viet Nam to withdraw its forces from Canilodia, so that the independence, sOI7ereignty and territorial in.tegrity of that country oan be restored and so that the Callbodian people oan at last enjoy peace and freedom. Last year a I reoord number of countries, 114 of them, inoluding the then 10 menbers of the European COlIDunity, and also Spain and pcxtuga1, joined in supporting this resolution on Caubodia. The Vietnamese oooupstion of Canbodia has, however, continued in violation of the United Nations Charter and the fundamental pi: inoiples of internatiOl'la1 law. (Sir John TholUSOO, United Kingdom) The lot of the Canbodian people has not imprOl7ed since the Assenbly last met to discuss this problem. They remain subjected to illegal oc::c::upation by forei~ troops and gOl7erned by a regime wic::h has no claim to legitimacy. Viet Ram prides itself on its struggle to win independence and the right to determine its own des;tinys it should now grant tha t right to the people of Canbodia. Instead Viet Nam c::ontinues to violate their fundamental rights and to endanger their culture and natimal identity. The '!Welve have no intention of contr ibuting to the re-establishment of the Pol Pot regime in Canbodia. we share the collective abhorrence felt by the world ool1l1lunity at the terrible abuses inflicted by Pol Pot and his Khmer R:>uge. But this prOl7ides no justificatim for Viet Nam's illegal occupation of its smaller neighbour for nearly eight years or its imposition of an illegitimate regime. The Callbodian resistance continues to challenge the Vietnamese forces. The possibility of establishing a free and pluralist society in Canbodia still exists. The aim must be to ac:hieve a negotiated settlement of the Canbodian question, not one imposed by force of arms. For this reasat, the '!Welve have supported ·the efforts of the C::OW'ltries of the Asaociation of SOUth-East Asian Nations (MEAN) and other parties to find such a solutiat. It is lamentable that Viet Nam has cons istently rejected the peace proposals tha t have been put to it s this year, for example, Hanoi and the Gover nment installed in Phnom Penh tur ned down out of hand the eight-point proposal p.1t focward by Pr inee Sihanouk in Harc:h. The 'l\I1elve have called upon Viet Nam to reoonsider this position and we do so again today. we cmtinue to believe that the Declaration of the International Conference on Kampuc:hea offers the best basis for a settlement. But we have yet to see an ikldic::ation of any serious will on the part of Hanoi to negotiate or to discuss the implementation of suc::c::essive United Nations resolutions based on the principles laid down by th.:)t Conference. (Sir John Thomsm, United Kingdom) MJch has been nade of Viet Nam's declared intention, announced last year, to withdraw all its forces from Canbodia by 1990. Some partial withdrawals have already taken place, but the OIlerall strength of Viet Nam's occupation force has remained much the same. Resolutions endorsed by this Assenbly have called up:m Viet Nam to withdraw its forces immediately from Cantlodia. This should remain our aim. Talk by Hanoi of a 1990 withdrawal date should in no way serve to legitimize a Vietnamese military presence in CaIIbodia until then. The Vietnamese GOIlernment has no right to put a timetable on the restoration of Canbodia's independent , sta tus. we support the efforts made by the secretary-General, his representa tives and the .hi Hoc Committee of the International Conference on Kampucbea to per suade Hanoi to agree to a settlement in accordance wi th resolu tions adopted by the U1i ted Nations. Any settlement would, inter alia, need to include guarantees against Vietnamese forces re-entering CaIIbodia after their withdrawal. Last year the Assembly met in the wake of the most ferocious Vietnamese military offensive in CaIIbodia since Hanoi's invasion of the country in 1978. Some quarter of a million Cambodian civilians had been forced to flee across the bocder into Thailand. The situatioo for those unfortunate people has not changed,; they have not been able to return to their homes in Canbodia. Viet Nam has maintained its forces in the Thai borde,r area, from where they have cootinued, in violation of international law, to make incursions and fire artillery into Thailand, causing casual ties among the civilicln population. The laying of mines on both sides of the border by Vietnamese troops has also caused unnecessary suffer ing. Thailand has drawn the secretary-General's attention to these abuses. The Twelve urge Viet Nam to cease the attaclts fortlndth. We should not OIlerlook the severe refugee problem which is a distressing consequence of Viet Nam's policy towards its smaller neighbours. Of particular (Sir John Thomsoo, United Kingdom) concern is the plight of the Khmer border p:>pula tion who remain tx>tally dependent on international relief. The Twelve applaud the humanitar ian role played by the Government of Thailand in providing succour for those civilians who have been forced from their country by Vietnamese force of arms. We would also remind th is AsseITbly of the admirable role played by representa tives of the international and voluntary organizations, inclUding many nationals of European Community member countries, in looking after this population. The European Community and its merrber States will continue to play their part, in supporting .,the programnes, co-ordinated by the United Nations Border Relief Operation, for the benefit of these unfortunate people. Bu t the root cause of the Cambodia refugee problem lies in Hanoi. This problem "'ill persist for as long as Viet Nam remains in illegal occupation of Cambodia, and the suffer ings of the refugees provide a forceful human itar ian argument for Viet Nam to canply wi th Uni ted Nations resolu tions. The Twelve will once aga in give their full support to the resolution submitted by the ASEAN countries, calling for a peaceful and just solution to the conflict in Cambodia, based on a total withdrawal of foreign forces and free and fair elections. We call on other Merrber States to join us in supporting this resolution and in pressing Viet Nam to take immediate actiC-)l'1 tx> end its illegal occupation of Carrbodia, and to respect the sanctity of international frontiers and the territorial int,egrity of that troubled country. The meeting rose at 1.20 p.m. (Sir John Thomsoo, United Kingdom)