S/PV.953 Security Council

The representative of the United Kingdom wishes to exercise his right of reply at this point, and 1 now recognize him.

1 will be very short, Mr. President. The repl'esentative of Ghana has just qUQted sorne remarks, the relevance of which" to our present debate 1 am bound to say escaped me, to the effect that the distinguished author of those remarks in sorne way regarded Portugal as being a colony of the United Kingdom. 1 do not know whether it is more appropriate for me or for the representative of Portugal to answer this particular allegation, but as the representative of Portugal is not here, perhaps 1 could do so. 67. 1 am bound to say that in our time we have had many colonies, including sorne countries taking part in this debate, and there are still quite a few British colonies left. But unless 1 am quite mistaken, one country which has never been at any time in history a British colony, is Portugal, and if Portugal feels at any time that she is threatened with such a terrible fate, 1 hope she will-as 1 have no doubt she willapply at once to this Council for protection. 68. MI'. BAHIZI (Congo, Leopoldville) (translated from French): 1 thank you, Mr. President, for having given me the opportunity to make the voice of the Congo (Leopoldville) heard on the problems raised by the unfortunate situation in Angola. 69. For us, the Congolese, the situation in Angola has two aspects-international and national. 70. From the international point of view, Angola has become a hotbed of unrest in Africa. There is a tangle of mixed interests; the dangers of the situation deteriorating are increasing; and the dead and wounded l'un into thousands. On the one hand we have the intransigence of the Portuguese Government and, on the othel', the legitimate desires of the Angolan people. There is no link, no bridge, between these two attitudes; the gulf between them grows wider every day and hatred mounts. The picture is becoming more and more sombre. The following question 72. Who still has the effrontery to defend the socalled "lega11l arguments of the Portuguese representative? He has stated, repeated and reiterated that Angola is a province of Portugal. In his last letter [8/4821], in which, incidentally, we found nothingnew, he again speaks of Article 2. paragraph 7, of the Charter, and of Chapters VI, VII. VIII and XII concerning the Council's competence. If 1 remember correctly, all these quibbling arguments were already advanced in this hall during the previous series of meetings on Angola, but were rejected. 73. But it is worth while to re-read Chapter VI. In specifying the reasons for which a meeting of the Council may be called, this Chapter refers to "dispute". 1 wonder whether the Portuguese representative thinks that no "dispute" id involved in a "situation" in which the death toll exceeds 30,000. Why does the Portuguese representative hesitate to admit that there is a dispute between thF.. Portuguese Government and the indigenous population, between whom there is not the slightest common bond of race or origin, a population which was not consulted concerning its fate or the Government which was imposed on it? 74. We thus come to a realization of the fact that there are two established rights in Angola: the right of the indigenous inhabitants, to whom the country belongs by just and natural right, and a despotic right based upon arms and upon laws drawn up to suit the wishes of the Portuguese legislators in Lisbon. 75. Portugal c1aims that the Council has exceeded its pow.ers under the Charter. We do not think so, but we do sincerely believe that Portugal is ignoring them. It disregards Chapter VI, which refers-and 1 emphasize this point-to the "Pacifie settlement of disputes". 76. When there is a war such as that which is raging in Angola, when thousands of people have been killed, and when that war has been started, not for the reasons usually associated with civil wars (political differences or differences in ideas, political upheavals, revolutions, etc.) but for very different reasons based on striking inequalities, havingprecise goals in view and displaying a nationalist character because a new nation is involved-in such a case, it is hardly possible, 1 think, to speak of a threat to the peace; it is rather a breach of the peace, fraught with the serious risk of a conflict that may spread over the entire continent and throughout the world. 77. We must seriously ask ourseIves what Portugal's objectives are in waging this war. Portugal c1aims to be fighting communism. It denounces the activities of the Angolan nationalists, whom it caUs communists, and thereby affords the representative 78. After aIl, the representative of Portugal, who sits here beside me, is not blind; last year he witnessed the emergence of seventeen new states in Africa. 79. AlI we African nationalists have fought fiercely for the liberation of our countries. Several representatives among those present here, including myself, have fought with aIl our hearts for our independence. Does the Portuguese representative think that we are communists because we have fought for the liberation of our countries? That is possible, but li so he is making a great mistake. 80. In his last statement, the Portuguese representative said: "The inscription of this item was inspired by a statement of the Soviet Government [S/4813], circulated as a Security Council document, and was proposed in a letter signed by a number of African-Asian countries and Yugoslavia [S/4816 and Add.1]." [950th meeting, para. 106.] 81. Does the Portuguese representative believe that we Africans aIl follow in Moscow's wake? No. That is not so; we are determined to fight for the liberation of the African continent and we are sincerely proud of this noble ideal which inspires us. It is really an ideology of national liberation and nothing else. We are not fighting for honours or wealth; we are not fighting imperialism or communism. We are simply claiming what belongs to us; we wish to come into our possessions, which are now in the hands of foreigners, and that is aIl. 82. If communism is the only road to liberationfrom colonial subjugation, then we are true communists without ever having known it ourselves. 83. It would be a most extraordinary discovery and a distressing error on the part of the Portuguese representative li he were to persist in considering us communists because we are claiming what belongs to us. We ask him to be a little more serious and sensible. He must think of the thousands of persons who are dying under his Government's yoke rather than of control over the wealth of Angola. 84. The Salazar Government continues to send further supplies of weapons and ammunition to Angola in order to wipe out the Angolan nationalists. The recent appointment of Air Force General Venancio Augusto Deslandes as Governor-General with aIl civil and military powers in Angola is proof of the intransigence and obduracy of the Lisbon Government. Portugal seems to be more determined than ever to carry its war of liquidation to the bitter end. 85. In referring to the statement made by thé Liberia.n representative in the Security Council on 6 June [950th meeting], 1 note that the 30,000 casual- 86. The Portuguese Government has already armed all the settlers in Angola and has asked them to join the militia in order to defend the integrity of what it calls its territory. These armed settlers are killing every Angolan they meet; we even wonder whether there is still any trace of human life in the concentration camps set up for the rebels. The Africau is really being hunted down. 87. There is no point in my dwelling on the Portuguese massacres in Angola. Yesterday there was slavery and deportation; today there is the incessant killing of a people deprived of any modern means of defence. This is the dark decline of Portuguese colonialism in Africa. 1 say decline because this situation cannot continue any longer; it must cease. The entire world is indignant at the unsavoury activities of the Portuguese in black _\frica. 88. 1 cannot conclude the balance-sheet of Portuguese misdeeds in Angola without quoting the statement by Doctor stuart, Director of the Kimpese Evangelical Medical Institute in the Congo. He said: "More than.a hundred casualties have reached my hospital; only the most urgent cases are treated, the others being sent to Congolese dispensaries. It is more than likely that hundreds of dying Angolans remain in the brush in the mountains along the frontier between Angola and the Congo (Leopoldville), because they are unable to reach my hospital or the Congolese dispensaries in time." 89. Dr. stuart states that the friends of the wounded carry them wrapped in blood-soaked blankets on stretchers. Some of them travel hundreds of kilometers in such conditions and take several days to reach the frontier and the clinics. 90. According to the patients, the Portuguese soldiers have brought death to thousands of Angolans. When they come to the villages, they often fire on all the indigenous inhabitants with their guns and set fire to the huts of the Angolans. Portuguese aircraft have caused thousands of deaths. 91. AIl the patients claim they were hit by bullets from aircraft strafing the indigenous villages. Dr. stuart continues: "Pedro Neves, thirty years old, whose legs were riddled with bullets, stated that when the Portuguese soldiers arrived in his village, Tumbé, they drew a circle in the main square and made aIl those they could find get inside it. Then they opened fire. The inhabitants of the village, Neves went on, died by the dozens. Then the Portuguese left, abandoning the dead and the wounded. "Jean Félix, twenty-two years old and an inhabitant of Kisengela, tells how the Portuguese soldiers led him and four of his comrades away. They appeared before a kind of court martial, where all the proceedings took place in Portuguese, which they do not understand. Then, the five men were dragged to the bank of a river, where they were shot down and bayoneted. Stabbed twice, Jean Félix fell into "Terrible things are happening in Angola." Dr. stuart concludes. 92. It is impossible to recount here all the atrocities which Portugal has committed in Angola. Plenty of them have already been mentioned both here in the Security Council and in the General Assembly. The radio and the newspapers all over the world speak of them daily. Besides all the information whose accuracy may sometimes justifiably be open to question, we also receive letters and information f:..'om our Governments, our friends and even a few who managed to escape. 93. How is it still possible to have doubts about these tortures and this mistreatment of every kind? How is it still possible to have doubts when, despite these horrors, the Portuguese military command apologizes for not having advanced far because of the rainy season? How is it still possible to have doubts when this same army command promises- God preserve us!-a major advance and certain victory at the end of this unfortunate rainy season? 94. No, there can he no further doubt. These massacres, these killings of human beings, thesetortures inflicted on the nationalists, these concentration camps, this absence of freedom and these violations of human rights are actually taking place in Angola under the command of the Portuguese Government. 95. It is impossible to over-emphasize the social and economic situation of the indigenous inhabitant who is crushed under the régime of forced labour and the innumerable injustices committed by Portugal in Angola. 96. We want Portugal to acknowledge, on the international level, the Angolan people's right of selfdetermination. Let it recognize their right to decide their own fate. 97. We want Portugal to recognize and accept the principle of Angola's independence. Let it also at last accept the fact that its laws and its supposed rights over Angola are obsolete and a thing of the pasto 98. We ask Portugal to take aIl the necessary measures to remedy this anachronistic situation. 99. If Portugal really wants to remain the friend of the Angolan people, it will heed our requests. And if it really wants to remaïn the friend of the African people in general, it will heed our repeated requests. 100. On the national level, we have a great problem which is adding to our already heavy burdens: that is the problem of the Angolan refugees in the Congo. Everyone knows that we share a long frontier with Angola and that friendly and brotherly relations have existed for centuries between our two peoples. We have both suffered the vicissitudes of history, which were not easy to surmount. Together we have been 101. According to an official statement which was issued by the province of Leopoldville a month aga and which 1 have already brought to the attention of the representatives of the African States, more than 60,000 Angolan refugees have been registered in the five border areas where they have been given shelter. These are Songola, Matadi, Boma, Lukula and Tshela. ~.02. However, the declaration continues, the warm welcome given by our villages is no longer enough to cope with this rising tide of refugees. 103. The Congolese Government has to overcome many difficulties in housing and feeding aU these destitute people, whose number is increasing in direct proportion ta the activity of the Portuguese soldiers. We appeal ta the international organization ta review the problem of the situation of the Angolan refugees in the Congo (Leopoldville) with il. view ta taking action, in co-operation with the Congolese Government, to assist in feeding, housing and clothing thp. Angolan refugees and, in the case of the sick, to make its contribution to their medical care. 104. We appeal to the free peoples ofthe whole world to assist the Congolese Government so that the Angolan refugees are cared for under better conditions. 105. We appeal again to the Portuguese Government to put an end ta these massacres so that the Angolan refugees may return to their homes with the assurance that calm has been restored in Angola. 100. Above all we want to spare our Angolan brothers the hard apprenticeship for independence that we had to serve. We also want them to be spared our sufferings. We want ta avoid those deaths which only delay but do not hait the course of history. 107. We do not speak out of hatred for anyone; we want ta be constructive and ta help ta find a solution before it is tao late. In this connexion, we must even forget for an instant that we are dealing with people who are trying ta exterminate a brother nation, with cruel men who set fire to entire villages and kill women and children who are taking no part in the struggle, and with irresponsible elements who are slaughtering the innocent, but who will be judged at the bar of history. 108. My delegation regrets that the Sub-Committee which the General Assembly established on 22 April 1961 by resolution 1603 (XV) has been prevented from carrying out its mandate. 109. It asks this Sub-Committee to be good enough to get in touch with the thousands of Angolan refugees in the Congo, who will be able to inform it of sorne facts connected with the statements on Angola made before the Assembly. These refugees are in the Congo, but they remain Angolans and, as such, they also have the right to be heard bythe Sub-Committee. 111. My delegation concludes this statement on Angola by wishing its brothers in that country good luck and assures Angola that it will receive continuing assistance, both moral and material, from the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville). 112. Ml'. President, with your permission, l should like briefly to reply to the Soviet Union representative, who impugned the representetive character of my delegation. 113. The representative of the Republic oi the Congo has been duly accredited to the Security Council by the President of th.e Republic of the Congo [S/4823]. 11'4. By a vote of 53 to 24, with 19 abstentions, the delegation appointed by the President of the Republic, Ml'. Joseph Kasa-Vubu, was admitted to the United Nations on 22 November 1960 as the sole representative of the Congolese p00ple. W It is difficult to see how the Soviet Union representative can now object to the hearing of a member of the delegation appointed by Ml'. Kasa-Vubu who, moreover, has already been heard by other United Nations organs. 115. With the Council's permission, l shaH relllind Ml'. Zorin of rule 17 of the provisional rules of procedure: "Any representative on the Security Council, to whose credentials objection has been made within the Security Council, shall continue to sit with the same rights as other representatives until the Security Council has decided the matter." 116. On this point, it is also pertinent to remind Ml'. Zorin of the words of the Soviet Union representative at the Security Council's 752nd meeting. At that time the question of Hungary was under discussion. On that occasion, the President proposed that the Hungarian representative "should sit at the Council table, but should not make a statement until the Secretariat has time to verify his credentials". [752nd meeting, para. 18.] 117. l stress the fact that our case is altogether different because there is no doubt about the validity of our credentials. But it is always a good thing to refresh some people's memories. On that occasion, 2 November 1956, since the case was not the same, the Soviet Union representative reminded the Council of the following: "At a previous meeting [746th meeting] the Security Council adopted a decision to invite the representative of Hungary to take part in the consideration of this item. That decision still stands ... " [752nd meeting, para. 22.] 118. The Soviet Union representative drew the Council's attention to rule 17 of the provisional rules of procedure and stated that it l'an counter to the President's proposaI.

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