On behalf of my delegation and the Government of the Republic of Mali, I would like to congratulate Mr. Slim on his brilliant election to the high office of President of our Assembly. This unanimous tribute by the Assembly is a recognition of his dedication to the United Nations and a tribute not only to his person and his country, but to the whole of Africa. We are convinced that his high competence and his spirit of justice, will make a precious contribution to the Assembly at its sixteenth session.
30. We are happy to congratulate the Government of Sierra Leone, a sister country, on its unanimous admission as the 100th member of our Organization. But our joy is overshadowed by the tragic death of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Dag Hammarskjold. The Government of Mali bows to the memory of Mr. Dag Hammarskjold a«d the officers of the United Nations who died with him, and asks you to convey its heartfelt condolences to the Swedish Government and the families of the deceased.
31. This sixteenth session of the General Assembly is of considerable interest on more than one score. The Republic of Mali, which entered this great international family a year ago together with other young African States, values highly the role of guardian of the peace and the universalist vocation which the Organization set itself in its Charter.
32. It is in the light of these facts and the hopes which we place in the United Nations that we shall now turn to the great problems which concern us.
33. In the first place, we have noted during our first year of international life that the tragic events in the Congo show the necessity to reform the structure of the United Nations, If we broach this problem it is because We are profoundly attached to the principles of the Charter, that we are convinced of the necessity to do everything possible to ensure the survival of the United Nations and because we think it vitally important that every nation should have confidence in the Organization's decisions, and above all in the way in which these decisions are carried out.
34. These facts take on a particular urgency by reason of the death of the Secretary-General of the Organization, who, like Patrice Lumumba, was also a victim of the clash of selfish imperialist interests in the Congo.
35. In our opinion the problem deserves our full attention, and a reform of the structure of the international organization is plainly necessary if we are to attain our objectives. The composition of the Economic and Social Council and the Security Council, as well as that of the administrative organs, must be reconsidered in the light of the great number of States newly admitted to the United Nations. Besides, it is unthinkable, in a world where confidence between the great Powers seems out of the question, that it should be left to one man to carry out the decisions reached. It is therefore indispensable, both for the sake of his own authority and as a guarantee, that the Secretary- General should have assistants jointly responsible with him for the execution and supervision of decisions.
36. This is the price we must pay for the authority of the United Nations. This is the prerequisite if it is to have a hearing among the young States who cannot shelter behind military power. The strength of the United Nations Will lie in defining a doctrine and having it respected, not in the formulation of accidental and circumstantial solutions. The United Nations, an association of a universalist character, must not appear as an instrument at the service of any given bloc or ideology, but as an effective instrument in the service of the ideals of justice and peace proclaimed by the Charter. Unfortunately—we must have the courage to say it and the frankness to admit it- the unhappy experience of the Congo has helped to shake the confidence which the young States were entitled to place in the United Nations.
37. For all these reasons and because of our common desire to make our Organization an international arbiter, a vigilant guardian of the peace and a tireless defender of justice between great and small, between strong and weak, the Republic of Mali urges the representatives other Member States to weigh the problem of the structure of the United Nations and its subsidiary organs at this sixteenth session.
38. I cannot conclude these remarks about the working of 'he United Nations and the structural reform of which it is in need without again referring to the drama of the Congo. Whatever anyone says or thinks, the truth is that through defective functioning of the organs of the United Nations and inadequate execution of its decisions, one of the best sons of Africa, the much-mourned Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, died at the hands of assassins with the full knowledge of representatives of the United Nations entrusted with the mission of helping to restore order in his country.
39,. This Congolese national hero had appealed to the United Nations to help him maintain the independence and territorial integrity of his country. It is an incontrovertible fact that the result of our Organization's intervention in the Congo is far from doing us credit, for it is difficult to show that United Nations officers were not implicated in the murder of Prime Minister Lumumba. But this tragedy did not dampen the ardent patriotism, of the Congolese nationalists and today there is a new Government in the Congo. Like that of Lumumba, it desires to be unitary and has decided to practise a policy of popular emancipation. United Nations troops are still in the Congo. It is our hope that the presence of the United Nations in the Congo should this time effectively help to consolidate the unity of the country. But v/e have reason to be alarmed at the present course of the Katangese secession, incited and maintained by certain Members of our Organization.
40. My delegation disapproves of any kind of agreement between the United Nations and a separatist Government such as that of the puppet Tshombe. It continues to demand the prompt and strict application of the Security Council resolution on the Congo of 21 February 1961 in Katanga is an integral part of the Republic of the Congo and consequently any agreement concerning this province of the Congo can come only from the Central Congolese Government. The representatives of the United Nations must avoid provoking new dissension between the members of the present Government and thus unleashing a second crisis. We express this desire with deep conviction, and for the sake of the very future of the United Nations we hope it will be taken into account. If we have insisted on the Congolese question, it is because we want the United Nations in the light of this unhappy experience, to be equipped with efficient and democratic executive organs so as to avoid the recurrence of events which we deeply deplore.
41. I spoke a moment ago of the universalist character of the United Nations. In this respect the sixteenth session must make good the past. I say "make good", for it is abnormal and unjust that an international Organization like ours which, as its Charter affirms, is open to all peace-loving nations and which undertakes as its basic mission the maintenance of peace, should shut its doors to a powerful nation which alone accounts for a quarter of the world's population. I refer to the People's Republic of China with its 700 million inhabitants.
42. We must face facts. Let us see to it that this sixteenth session of the United Nations is a session of objectivity and realism, for we cannot go on escaping from logic year after year. We must, without further delay, restore to the People's Republic of China its rightful place in the United Nations. In so doing we shall respect the universalist intent of the Charter and we shall demonstrate that no one bloc holds the magic key to the United Nations.
43. Examination of the great international problems and objective efforts to seek their solution show once again, if that were necessary, the absurdity of further opposition to the admission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations. For how can a definitive solution be found to the problems of peace and disarmament in bodies which do not include a nation which alone accounts for over a quarter of the world's population and which moreover is every day making more impressive advances in the field of science and technology?
44. The Republic of Mali, firmly resolved to practise a policy of genuine independence and non-alignment on the international level, a policy of peace and justice, is strongly in favour of admitting the People's Republic of China to the United Nations at the present session and demands that it be reinstated in its legitimate rights. We appeal to the conscience of all nations concerned to uphold peace and justice to help in the task of righting this wrong.
45. If we insist, as we have just done, on the problem of a structural reform of the United Nations and on the admission of the People's Republic of China, it is because we are firmly convinced that the Organization can only intervene in great international problems or disputes between nations to the degree that it can resolve its own internal contradictions.
46. In 1960 and 1961, our Organization was faced with hard realities and its authority has emerged seriously impaired. It will again have to face severe tests, for nobody can deny that international tension has reached an unprecedented height at this time and that the cold war has assumed an alarming intensity attended with grave threats to mankind. Yes, we are now living in fear and insecurity because of the position adopted by certain great Powers who have learned nothing from the lessons of history. In order to maintain their privileges, their outdated notions of grandeur and prestige, the colonialist Governments are imposing an absurd and criminal war on African peoples. Thus it is that the Algerian people, mobilized, as one man, has struggled heroically for seven years to reconquer its national independence. This savage war, forced on a peaceful people whose only claim is the right to dispose of themselves and their heritage, must prick the conscience of every Member State.
47. The French Government itself, convinced of the justice of the Algerian revolution, has been obliged to recognize the right of the Algerian people to self- determination. The Algerian war has been discussed often enough within these walls and I shall not expatiate on its various aspects, with which you are all perfectly familiar. I would however stress the fact that the French Government, relying on powerful economic, financial and military resources, means to go on imposing its domination on the Algerian people in order to exploit its riches, both agricultural and mineral. We cannot remain indifferent to the genocide of a people struggling for legitimate aspirations of which we approve.
48. We believe that the United Nations can no longer remain indifferent to the Algerian war. This sixteenth session must no longer content itself with abstract recommendations or the simple expression of wishes, whilst every day in Algeria women, children and old people are falling under the bullets of an army of foreign domination. Our Organization has a duty to help the provisional Government of the Algerian Republic and the French Government to find a solution in conformity with the direction of history, a peaceful solution culminating in the independence and territorial integrity of the Algerian Republic, including the Sahara. Negotiations have taken place; they came to nothing because one of the parties wanted to impose its solution on the other.
49. The United Nations must present the French Government with a just and equitable solution. France is a Member of the United Nations and must accept its discipline and ideals. The Algerian people must recover its independence and freely decide its destiny and its relations with other nations. Let us hope that France will at last understand that it can only safeguard its genuine prestige by recognizing once for all the independence of Algeria, without any neo- colonialist reservations.
50. A moment ago I said that we were living in a time of fear and insecurity. Indeed, the Tunisian people have just been the victims of a bloody aggression which has cost many Tunisian patriots their lives. Why the aggression? Merely because a stronger Government, the French Government, wishes to maintain, against the will of the Tunisian people, a military base on Tunisian territory. Unless our Organization, whose basic purpose is the maintenance of international peace and security, takes strong measures against such acts, the small nations will live in a perpetual nightmare, with their security and territorial integrity open to violation at any time.
51. In Africa martyred peoples, without arms or resources, are fighting in difficult conditions for their dignity. Women are being raped and villages burned in the name of I know not what civilization. These deeds are a disgrace for the whole of mankind. The colonialist Governments which are perpetrating them deserve our censure. But we must not stop there. We must halt their criminal hands; if we do not do so, we shall be guilty of criminal inaction. It is the duty of the sixteenth session of the General Assembly to fix an irrevocable and immediate date for the end of colonialism, which must be enforced on all Powers still having territories under their domination. By that date all peoples must be independent and no ties must remain between them and their former metropolitan countries other than those of co-operation based on mutual respect for the sovereignty of the other. A great deal has been said about colonialism- its misdeeds and its immorality. It is © that our Organization took an unequivocal position on the subject and on that of the colonialist Powers. At this session we must sound the knell of colonialism; in doing so we shall have achieved one of the Organization's great ideals, namely the equality of peoples and nations.
52. Nor must we forget to denounce the new face of colonialism as encountered in several countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, that neo-colonialism
which is as harmful as the old style colonialism.
53. In his conference on 20 August 1961 President Modibo Keita gave a precise definition of this new version of colonialism in the modern world when he said:
"Neo-colonialism is when an independent country finds itself being administered indirectly by its ex- colonial Power through traitors whom the latter has helped to climb to power and who thereafter form a rampart between that country and the outside world."
54. This neo-colonialism of which I speak appears in various forms, which are the source of troubles and tension in Africa, Asia and Latin America,
55. For the neo-colonialists are working unceasingly to achieve regroupings under the effective domination of foreign Powers and, when such regroupings slip from their hands, they resort to Balkanisation. The most recent and most striking example of this policy of "divide and rule" is that of Katanga.
56. The agents of neo-colonialism also resort to many other base practices which we cannot pass over in silence, such as the provoking of national conflicts that destroy national unity, the establishment of military bases, often camouflaged as research stations or training schools, economic blackmail, oppression and the murder of patriots fighting for the true independence of their countries.
57. The criminal policy of apartheid which flourishes in South Africa in the name of Christian civilization needs no further condemnation, In our view the United Nations should impose exemplary sanctions against the acts of barbarism which Dr. Malan's heirs daily commit against peaceful and defenceless peoples.
58. The fact that apartheid has been written with the constitution in South Africa is a challenge to world morality. Only recently Mr. Verwoerd, Prime Minister of the Republic of South Africa, declared cynically at a political meeting in Pretoria:
"The establishment of the Republic has already led to a change. We have become nationalists, not in the political sense of the term [sic] but as a people belonging to a single nation. The South African nation means the whites of South Africa,"
Mr. Verwoerd went on to say:
"In the future the National Party should not be the party of the citizens who speak Afrikaans, but the party that is working for the preservation of the whites in South Africa."
59. What is clear and unmistakable is that Mr. Verwoerd's Machiavellism is now quite unambiguous: genocide has been officially announced as the programme of the South African National Party.
60. We may wager that the Republic of South Africa would now be out of the United Nations, under the provisions of Article 6 of the Charter, but for the unavowed sympathy of certain major Powers.
61. When the drama of the Arab refugees from Palestine arose in April 1947, the General Assembly, at its first special session, set up a Commission to deal with this distressing problem; but no effective solution has yet been found. Funds have been provided to assist the refugees, but the problem as a whole remains untouched. Meanwhile men, women and children are living far from their homes and their property. Our Assembly must take up the Palestinian problem again and must find a solution that will enable all the Arab refugees to return to their homeland,
62. I spoke earlier of the cold war and the international tension. The international tension has, in fact, in recent months assumed unprecedented proportions. The frontiers resulting from the last war are again being disputed by some European countries. The German problem and the problem of Berlin in particular are again in the foreground of the international scene, I have, no intention of inflicting upon you an historical survey of the German problem, with which you are all thoroughly familiar. What we do see is that peoples—the people of Germany, the people of Korea, the people of Viet-Nam, etc.—have been divided by war and the divisions are being maintained by the policy of the blocs. As a result of the battle for influence and the ideological struggle the different parts of these divided countries are now hostile states armed and supported against each other by the two opposing blocs. The Government of the Republic of Mali regards such a policy as dangerous and as a threat to world peace, since a simple mistake could at any time lead to a war whose consequences would be unpredictable. As the President of the Republic of Mali stated at the Belgrade Conference, foreign Powers should abstain from any interference in the
internal affairs of those divided countries and their peoples should regain their national unity byway of negotiation. The Government of the Republic of Mali is convinced that the practice of dividing peoples who have always formed a single national entity represents a permanent threat to peace. The predominant fact about those countries is that today there are two German States, two German Governments, two Vietnamese States, two Viet-Namese Governments, two Korean States and two Korean Governments. That fact must be recognized and the representatives of those different Governments must be invited to discuss objectively the conditions for the reunification of their peoples. In our view only a negotiated solution can finally resolve these problems and so reduce some of the causes of international tension.
63. With regard to the German problem the question of self-determination raised by certain countries is an irrelevant issue, introduced in order to sow confusion. For there are, in fact, two German States, each with its lawful Government and sovereign parliament, which can decide the fate of the German people at any time. In our view this unquestionable fact rules out any idea of self-determination, which to our mind can be applied only to peoples fighting for their independence and sovereignty. '
64. Apart from the question of the peaceful reunification of the countries of which I have just spoken, the dominant factors in the international situation are the arms race and the nuclear tests. Indeed, we cannot conceal our concern at the renewal of nuclear testing and the further development of weapons of mass destruction. Whatever the form of the nuclear tests or the reasons for them we condemn them unreservedly, wherever they take place. We have already condemned and we still condemn the nuclear tests carried out in the Sahara, particularly in view of the fact that when the question of conducting those tests on French soil arose, the people of Corsica reacted violently. The French Government, while retreating in the face of this popular pressure, none the less decided to pursue its experiments in the Sahara, in the very heart of Africa, in the teeth of the strongest opposition from the African peoples directly threatened by the radioactive fall-out.
65. The Government of the Republic of Mali will very shortly be submitting to the relevant United Nations bodies evidence of some unusual sicknesses and teratological phenomena which have appeared among the peoples and cattle in the Republic's Saharan areas.
66. We are aware of the fact that an error of judgement could at any time lead to catastrophe and the wiping out of the whole of the civilization built up through long and patient effort. The problem of peace and disarmament is of concern to the whole of mankind. It cannot therefore be left to the nuclear powers alone to discuss, particularly since the latter, for reasons of prestige and mistrust, are quite unable to trust each other and to reach a solution acceptable to all, as our experience of the long and difficult negotiations which have been under way for years goes to show. The non-aligned countries must be associated with the negotiations on the problem of general and complete disarmament and the solutions decided upon at that level must be enforced on all Powers by the United Nations with the aid, if accessory, of appropriate sanctions.
67. The Republic of Mali, which regained its independence in1960 in circumstances which have already been described here, is a convinced supporter of the policy of non-alignment and positive neutralism. The wish of the Government, of Mali is to live in peace and to co-operate with all Governments which show a desire to do so on the basis of mutual respect and non-Interference in the internal affairs of others. That fundamental choice was the reason why the Republic of Mali demanded the evacuation of all French military bases established on its own territory, since the maintenance of those bases was incompatible with our policy of remaining out of any military blocs or coalitions. In any case, we are glad to say that the evacuation of the F reach military bases has been accomplished satisfactorily, which augurs well for our future relations with the French Republic.
68. In the international political field the Republic of Mali cannot be equated with any of the blocs. We shall judge the latter by their deeds, by their behaviour on the problems of concern to us, by their manner of supporting the oppressed peoples who are fighting for their independence, by their manner of assisting the younger nations suffering from under-development, by their support for or hostility towards those nations which are oppressing others, and by their unequivocal devotion to the maintenance of peace and the defence of justice throughout the world. Those are the bases of our non-alignment.
69. Nor does our neutralism mean that we try to follow the middle path between West and East or that we shall remain passive spectators in the case of problems not of direct concern to us. As a member of the international community, we shall take a stand on every issue that arises. In doing so we shall not look to the position taken by East or West. Our attitude will be that dictated by dignity and justice. We condemn bargaining and economic blackmail as means of persuasion. We prefer frank and open discussion to such methods. This position may offend some countries, but we accept the risk.
70. Our non-alignment and our positive neutralism may be summarized as follows.
71. We are for peace, because we need peace in order to build up our youthful nation. Therefore, whenever peace is at issue, we shall be with those who labour effectively for its maintenance, regardless of their relationship to any bloc.
72. We are for general and complete disarmament, and whenever this problem comes up for discussion we shall be found on the side of those who put forward constructive proposals.
73. We are for justice and respect for the dignity of peoples. Therefore, we! are with those people who are fighting for their independence and against those who try to keep them under their domination.
74. It was on the basis of these consideration's that the Republic of Mali took part in the Belgrade Conference and gave its unreserved support to the decisions reached at that important meeting.
75. Before ending, I should like to say a few words on the questions of technical assistance to Africa. This agenda item interests my delegation/to the highest degree. I should say immediately that if technical co-operation is to be understood as a "transfer of the knowledge, skill and experience acquired by the more technically advanced nations or groups of nations to the less developed countries", it is important to establish as a basic principle that technical co-operation must be stripped of political or other conditions which make it humiliating and reduce its effectiveness. For otherwise it could only too easily be turned into an instrument for the domination of the less developed countries by the more technically advanced countries; in other words, into a tool of that neo-colonialism of which some are dreaming. In contrast, technical co-operation, when properly understood, can be an important instrument of peace.
76. To sum up, the Government of Mali has endeavoured to pick out of the jumble of ideas on international technical co-operation, and with due regard for the experience already acquired in that field, those basic principles which must be established as fundamental conditions and without which there can be no really effective co-operation. These are:
(1) The liquidation of colonialism, as a prerequisite for the establishment of any technical co-operation machinery to promote the economic growth of the countries to be developed.
(2) A large increase in assistance to those countries of Africa which have acceded to independence and which have received little or no international technical assistance because of their previous colonial status.
(3) Technical co-operation not based on any standard formulae or universal pattern.
(4) The necessary co-ordination of efforts and promotion of technical assistance to be based on a plan or on a thorough preliminary study of the country's resources and the aims of the development.
(5) A major factor in the effectiveness of co-operation is an increase in and the general adoption of pre-investment measures.
77. Those are the basic ideas by which the delegation of the Republic of Mali will be guided during this sixteenth session of the General Assembly. As I said at the beginning, the delegation of Mali has come here with the firm intention of helping to find just solutions to all the major problems with which mankind is preoccupied. We hope that the United Nations will emerge rejuvenated and with the prestige and the authority that will enable it' to justify the reasons for which it was created.