MLI

Mr. President, I should like, on behalf of the delegation of the Republic of Mali and speaking for myself, to offer you my most sincere congratulations on the confidence and esteem displayed by the General Assembly in entrusting to you the duties of President at the eighteenth session. I am sure that, with your high personal qualities and great experience of the problems confronting us, you will direct our debates with impartiality and ability. 99. It is usual at each session for the Governments of States Members of the United Nations, through their representatives, to exchange views on the ways and means of achieving the fundamental purposes of the Charter. My delegation deems this a good occasion to recall those purposes, which are clearly expressed in Article 1 of the Charter and may be summarized as follows: "1. To maintain international peace and security . .. "2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace; " 3. To achieve International cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion;". 100. The people and Government; of the Republic of Mali are profoundly attached to the achievement of the purposes I have just quoted. I would therefore, on this occasion, reiterate our confidence in the United Nations as an instrument for progress and for the promotion of international understanding and co-operation among peoples with philosophies and social systems which are different but are founded on respect for human dignity and the principle of racial equality. 101. Speaking of the problem of peace, or to be more exact, of what is known as the cold war, the speakers who preceded me rightly pointed out that our current session is taking place under better auspices. The Government of the Republic of Mali shares the widely- held optimistic view that the signing in Moscow of the agreement for a partial ban on nuclear tests creates favourable conditions for a fresh approach to other problems, such as disarmament, in an atmosphere conducive to discussion and understanding. Yet our optimism, like the Moscow agreement itself, is limited. Our fears and anxieties remain, because underground nuclear testing continues. Furthermore, not all the nuclear Powers have as yet signed the Moscow Treaty. Consequently, the risk of future nuclear explosions in the atmosphere is not completely ruled out. 102. For all these reasons, the Government of the Republic of Mali, while welcoming the Moscow Treaty as an important psychological advance, considers that the fundamental problem of general and complete disarmament remains untouched. The threat of thermonuclear war still exists; for the nuclear Powers continue to manufacture, perfect and stockpile weapons of mass destruction. So long as these weapons exist, the temptation to use them in. case of a conflict in order to ensure victory, or even for self-preservation, may triumph over reason. 103. As you know, the Government of the Republic of Mali is not a nuclear Power and, militarily speaking, it has no ambition to be one. Nor does the Government of Mali have any foreign military bases in its territory. Nevertheless, the Government of Mali has acceded to the Moscow Treaty, and it welcomed the establishment of the "hot line" between the White House and the Kremlin, in the conviction that these two developments —the Moscow Treaty and the establishment of the "hot line"— are very important factors in the easing of tension between East and West and should be used as a starting point or base for achieving further progress and for ridding humanity of any threat of nuclear or thermonuclear war. The Government of the Republic of Mali believes that, since the survival of mankind is a matter of concern to every people, all Governments, whether or not the States they represent are Members of the United Nations, should have a proper opportunity to express their views on problems connected with the total prohibition of any nuclear explosions in any environment. Again, all Governments have an interest in the question of general and complete disarmament. The great Powers, which by pursuing the arms race are keeping all mankind in a state of terror and under the threat of total destruction, should view their responsibility more objectively and should bear in mind the legitimate aspirations of all peoples to a better life. Instead of recriminations and propaganda speeches, there should now be a search for genuine solutions which would lead to the cessation of all nuclear testing and to general and complete disarmament. 104. Enough has been said of the political, but more especially the economic and social, benefits of general and complete disarmament, at this and previous sessions. I would not, therefore, weary the Assembly by repeating them. Formulae for achieving general and complete disarmament have also been put forward at the many patient meetings of the Committee of Eighteen at Geneva, and other apposite formulae have been proposed by Heads of State, speaking in their own capitals or elsewhere. The base for which the President of the United States asked in his splendid address on 20 September 1963 [1209th meeting] has also been found; it is the Moscow Treaty, which has been signed by over 100 States Members of the United Nations. If, therefore, the will to disarm is sincere and in conformity with the statements we have heard, a solution may be considered very near. In the present atmosphere of relaxation of tension, the Committee of Eighteen, on the basis of the various formulae put forward at Geneva and in certain capitals, could prepare recommendations for submission to the broadest possible summit conference, open even to States not members of the United Nations but desirous of contributing to the success of the conference. 105. The hope which many States expressed when signing the Moscow Treaty will thus have proved a real base for the solution of problems that have haunted mankind since the last world war —namely, the cessation of nuclear tests in all environment, and genera] and complete disarmament. 106. In the context of relaxation of international tension —if by that expression we mean relaxation of tension between States, and not merely between the Soviet Union and the United States— an event as important to my country as the Moscow Treaty has occurred in the continent of Africa: the Addis Ababa Conference. Four months ago, the people of Mali hailed the birth of the Organization of African Unity at Addis Ababa as an event without precedent in the history of our continent. Last May, Africa, divided by centuries of colonization, achieved a great triumph over its characteristic diversity of peoples, languages, and religions, and decided to pool its actual and potential resources in order to go forward while respecting individual freedom of choice. Thus, the Organization of African Unity lists among its foremost concerns the total liberation of Africa, the restoration of the dignity of the African, and the promotion of close economic cooperation, African and international. 107. The Organization of African Unity does not derive its unprecedented historic importance from the fact that African groupings, which but yesterday were rivals, have met and merged into one, or from the climate of relaxation of tension and co-operation created in Africa; the most important and most positive aspect of the birth of the Organization of African Unity is the unanimous resolve of the African Heads of State to do everything possible to rid the African continent of the scourge of colonialism, the eradication of which is one of the fundamental purposes of the United Nations. In deciding to pool all the means at their disposal in order to liberate the African peoples still under foreign domination, the African Heads of State sought to discharge a duty both to themselves and to the United Nations, whose Charter stipulates the equal rights and self-determination of all peoples. 108. We have said in the past, and we reaffirm, that the colonial system is a threat to international peace and security. It is a denial of the basic principles of the Charter, namely, respect for human dignity and the self-determination of peoples. It is also an act of violence, since the administering Power and the ruling foreign minority can maintain their domination over an oppressed people only by the use of force. 109. The acts of violence perpetrated against the African peoples by the champions of the colonial system in Angola, Mozambique, "Portuguese" Guinea, or Southern Rhodesia —to name only those territories— have been depicted year after year to this Assembly and to the Security Council. The Assembly, appreciating the urgent need to liquidate the colonial system, therefore adopted resolution 1514 (XV), containing the Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples and later resolution 1654 (XVI), setting up a Special Committee on decolonization which now has two years' unremitting effort to its credit. 110. In spite of our disgust and indignation, my delegation does not now intend to initiate a debate on the more acute and intractable of the colonial conditions which confront us. We reserve the right to do so when the report of the Special Committee on decolonization comes up for discussion. I should like, however, to point out to the more notorious colonial Powers, and particularly to Portugal, that the peoples they are oppressing in Africa or elsewhere are no longer alone. Those oppressed peoples are now assured of the effective solidarity of the thirty-two independent African States in particular and, more generally, of all States profoundly committed to respect for human dignity and for the self-determination of peoples. Every colony will be liberated, with or without the consent of the administering Power, Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea are not, and will never be provinces of a backward metropolitan country in Europe which is out of step with the times. These territories will be independent African States, because logic and history demand it. Southern Rhodesia too will be an independent African State, and its destiny will lie in the hands of the true representatives of the people of Southern Rhodesia who are today oppressed by the racist Government of Mr. Field. This is inevitable, because the conditions which allowed the United Kingdom to cede South Africa and its 15 million Bantu to the Afrikaners are gone forever. Today there are thirty-two independent African States, and they will not agree to Southern Rhodesia's being a racist police State like Mr. Verwoerd's South Africa. 111. The United Nations, in keeping with its Charter, must shoulder its responsibilities and put an end to the colonial system, which is a real threat to international peace and security. The responsibility of the great Powers for the liquidation of the colonial system is a very heavy one, and quite as heavy as their responsibility for general disarmament or for the banning of nuclear tests. The African Heads of State recognized this in Addis Ababa when they declared: "The Conference informs the allies of colonial powers that they must choose between their friendship for the African peoples and their support of powers that oppress African countries." 112. We appreciate the position of certain great Powers, in that they are bound by political and military alliances with colonial Powers; but we would venture to point out that even the indirect aid they are giving Portugal enables the Salazar Government to intensify its savage repression of the African peoples fighting to regain their independence. Everyone knows that without the considerable facilities available to it under NATO, Portugal, which is at present one of the most backward countries in Europe, would be in no position to continue its colonial war in Africa. Thus, the NATO Powers share the responsibility for the crimes committed in Africa by Portugal. We therefore ask them to cut off their assistance to the Salazar Government so long as it persists in its aberration of regarding African territories as provinces of Portugal. Most of all, we ask the great Powers, friendly to Portugal, which are permanent members of the Security Council to make Salazar understand that history is a graveyard of defunct empires and that the Portuguese colonial empire can be no exception. 113. Because of their special responsibilities with respect to the maintenance of peace, we urge those great Powers to stand by the peoples who are fighting to regain their right to dignity and independence, and not to take refuge in an abstentionist attitude when decisions are taken on the problems raised by colonialism. We ask them to apply their friendship and influence to persuading Portugal to enter into immediate negotiations with the true representatives of the liberation movements in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea. That path, which has led to reconciliation in other similar cases, is the only realistic way of ending the state of war now existing in the African territories under Portuguese administration. I am sure that the African nationalists, upon whom the Salazar Government has inflicted harsh years of hatred and violence, are prepared to meet it halfway. 114. I cannot dissociate colonialism from another shameful practice, apartheid; for both stem from the same outlook, based on the inequality of races. The practice of apartheid, which is the most arrogant violation of the letter and spirit of the Charter, has been raised to the level of a system of government by South Africa, and in this house we rub shoulders with the representative of that system. My delegation wonders by what anachronism the representative of a Government which does not recognize the principle of racial equality, and which, moreover, violates the most sacred principles of the Charter, namely, respect for human rights, has been able to gain admission to this Organization. 115. The behaviour of the South African Government, the defiance and maledictions which it hurls at our Organization, are disgusting. Besides, how can it be claimed that the Verwoerd clique represents the people of South Africa? No one can make such a claim, because the 15 million Bantus who constitute the overwhelming majority of the population of South Africa have nothing in common with the Afrikaners who oppress them. 116. Thus, the Government of South Africa is a foreign minority Government, and it is both racist and colonialist; consequently, the question of its representation must arise. The descendants of the Boers, who through the complicity of the United Kingdom have succeeded in seizing power in that part of Africa, have discovered and applied in the African continent a philosophy which victimizes the Africans. According to that philosophy, the whites are a master race with a divine mission to take supreme charge of the destiny of the black Bantus, who are considered to be of an inferior race. 117. I said a moment ago that the South African Government was also a colonialist Government. The first victim it selected was the internationally mandated Territory of South West Africa. In that Territory, the administration of which was entrusted to it by the League of Nations, the Government of the clique of Voerwoerds and Malans has introduced all the racist laws that are in force in South Africa. Despite United Nations resolutions on the subject and warnings by the African States, the Government of South Africa considers the annexation of the Territory a fait accompli. That is why it cynically resists a United Nations presence in the Territory. The Government of Mali, which like the other African Governments undertook to implement the decisions adopted at Addis Ababa, asks the United Nations to accept the South African Government's challenge and to take all necessary steps to bring about a United Nations presence in the Territory of South West Africa, in accordance with the wishes expressed by the people of the country. Fortified by its impunity, the Government of South Africa has recently carried its audacity to the point of voicing claims to the protectorates of Basutoland, Swaziland and Bechuanaland. 118. The feelings of the African peoples are exacerbated by the provocative attitude of the Portuguese, South African and Southern Rhodesian Governments, Recent debates in the Security Council showed that the international community disapproved of the attitude of those Governments, but they also showed that the great Powers which are permanent members of the Security Council had different views on the urgency of the settling of the problems of the liquidation of colonialism and apartheid. We ask them to try to understand us, in the interest of peace and friendship among nations. In any event, we cannot agree to any compromise at the expense of the freedom and dignity of our oppressed brethren. The Head of the Government of the Republic of Mali expressed his views quite unequivocally at Addis Ababa, when he told the other African Heads of State: "It would be a mockery indeed for us responsible leaders to try to play the part we hope to play, while close at hand, sometimes on our very borders, our brethren are reduced to slavery or set on a level with beasts, simply at the will of the South African racists and the latter-day colonialists who have learnt nothing of history. "We know that the path we have taken with a will is thorny and strewn with pitfalls, but it is the only path to peace and happiness for our peoples." 119. As I had occasion to recall last month during the debate on Southern Rhodesia in the Security Council [1065th meeting], the peoples of Africa fought on every front to prevent the enslavement of mankind by Hitlerian fascism. Now, the peoples of Africa are appealing to others for help in ridding Africa of the twin scourges of colonialism and apartheid. We cherish the hope that that appeal, which was made at Addis Ababa by the thirty-two independent African Heads of State, will be heard at this session, because international peace and security depend on it. 120. While the African States are infuriated by the policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa, they are also disquieted by the racial discrimination to which millions of Negroes are subjected in the United States of America. The people of Mali, true to the provisions of the Charter and to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, expresses its sympathy with the Negroes of the United States in their struggle to obtain respect for their human dignity. The Government of Mali also supports President Kennedy's endeavours in his valiant fight to restore the rights of the Negro in United States society. 121. I should like now to refer to some other political problems which represent real threats to international peace and security. Only recently, our attention has been focussed on Viet-Nam, because of the Buddhist question. We condemn any encroachment upon freedom of conscience, but we believe that the real threat to peace in that part of the world is the failure to apply the Geneva Agreements. It is therefore time for the Governments responsible for the implementation of those agreements to reflect upon their responsibilities, so that the war hysteria in that region may be dispelled and the people devote themselves to the tasks of national construction. In passing, I should like to point out that the presence of foreign troops, both in Viet-Nam and in South Korea, is not conducive to a solution of the problems arising from the partition of the peoples of those countries. 122. Another problem which detracts from the universal character of our Organization is the question of the restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations. The Government of Mali believes that the absence of the People's Republic of China is a serious impediment to the settlement of the major international problems. Its Government, which represents 700 million persons, is the only Government representative of the people of China. It should therefore occupy the seat which is its by right in our Organization and in all international bodies. To oppose the restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China is unrealistic; nor does such an attitude promote the peaceful settlement of the problems with which mankind is preoccupied. 123. Another question which so often reappears on the international scene also claims our attention —the question of Cuba, which at the seventeenth session led to a dangerous confrontation between the two great nuclear Powers. The Government of the Republic of Mali, which is strongly committed to the principle of the peaceful coexistence of States with full respect for individual freedom of choice, believes that the domestic regime of any country is entirely within the sovereign jurisdiction of the people of that country. 124. In the interest of international peace and security, the Government of Mali hopes that the Governments of the United States and Cuba will find a peaceful solution and establish neighbourly relations, thus preventing a recurrence of such situations as we witnessed last year. 125. I should like now to turn to another question of concern to all the African delegations, which was also discussed at the Summit Conference at Addis Ababa, namely, the representation of the continent of Africa in the principal organs of the United Nations, and in particular the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. When the Charter and the Gentleman's Agreement in London (1946) were drawn up, there were only three African States; today, there are thirty-two. The African States feel frustrated because they are not represented in the Security Council as a continent, but through ways and means which do them no credit. We therefore place before the Organization the question of the equitable representation of the continent of Africa in all organs of the United Nations. In our view, the best means of ensuring such representation is to amend the relevant articles of the Charter; but we are aware that one permanent member of the Security Council is opposed to any amendment of the Charter because the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China as a founder Member have not been restored. We therefore ask all Member States to consider the problem of the equitable representation of the continent of Africa in the various organs of the United Nations objectively, in the interest of the Organization itself. In any event, the African States reserve the right to employ any means available to them under the Charter and rules of procedure of the United Nations in order to obtain respect for the rights of the continent of Africa. 126. As a developing country, the Republic of Mali attaches particular importance to the problem of international co-operation in trade and economic matters. There is at present a large imbalance between levels of living in the industrialized countries and those in the primary producing countries. The United Nations Development Decade must contribute to bridging the gap which increasingly separates the so-called wealthier countries from those described as poor. The Government of Mali appeals to the highly industrialized countries to make the United Nations a true centre for harmonizing the actions of all nations, in order to assure for all men the well-being they are entitled to expect as a result of advances in science and technology. We believe that greater collective effort by the technically advanced States would enable the specialized agencies of the United Nations to meet the needs of the developing countries more effectively. 127. The Government of the Republic of Mali also wants increased bilateral co-operation, but it is strongly opposed to any interference in the domestic affairs of other countries. Bilateral aid should be an act of solidarity, and not a means whereby the great Powers can impose their political, economic and social preferences on the countries they assist. Certain great Powers have very often been seen to intervene indirectly, and sometimes indeed directly, in the domestic affairs of small countries, either through economic pressure or by instigating opposition movements to overthrow Governments which they do not find sufficiently tractable. This kind of interference and, in many cases, this desire to control the economic and commercial mechanism of the younger States, are what we mean by neo-colonialism, and it is this that we condemn. 128. In conclusion, I should like to say that Africa expects much of this session of the United Nations, which opens in an atmosphere favourable to dialogue. The incipient relaxation of tension between East and West, of which so much has been heard, will be meaningless to the African peoples unless it helps to settle the problems of primary concern to them, namely, the liquidation of colonialism and apartheid and the fight against under-development. 129. The African States, for their part, decided at Addis Ababa to work in a spirit of solidarity and respect for the human person, and to make this eighteenth session a session at which the decisions adopted would strengthen the prestige of the United Nations.