20. I wish to extend to Mr. Arenales the sincere congratulations of the Liberian delegation and myself on his election as President of the General Assembly at its twenty-third session. His long experience in international affairs affords the Assembly the opportunity of having tried and tested hands at its helm during a period when the world situation gives cause for anxiety. We can only wish him abundant success.
21. I should like also to take the opportunity to pay a deserved tribute to his predecessor, Mr. Manescu of Romania, who handled the deliberations of the twenty-second session of the General Assembly as well as the resumed session held during this year so ably and displayed such skill in the performance of his arduous duties as to merit the admiration and respect he very easily won from us all.
22. Secretary-General U Thant’s efforts and devotion in the service of the United Nations, as well as his dedication to the cause of international peace and co-operation, continue to merit our approbation. We wish him well in his strenuous duties and assure him of the support of the Government of Liberia.
23. The Liberian delegation notes with satisfaction the most recent admission to the family of nations, that of the newly independent State of Swaziland. This admission further evidences the trend towards the eventual universality of our Organization.
24. The twenty-third session of the General Assembly is convening at a time when the world situation is so fraught with political tension and unrest, marked by developments of so disturbing and disorganizing a nature as to make us aware of the need for our persistent and unrelenting efforts and endeavours to achieve the peace and stability for which the world yearns.
25. The tragic civil war in Nigeria has brought suffering to millions of people, and relief efforts in massive proportions will be necessary to alleviate the serious human problems that have resulted. We cannot overlook the fact that this problem has been due partly to unwarranted outside intervention in violation of the Charter.
26. The problems in Viet-Nam remain unsolved, in spite of efforts to*bring about peace in that area through negotiations. It is difficult to see what progress, if any, has been made in the Paris talks. There is the dreadful situation in southern Africa, which worsens each day and may soon bring us to the inevitable brink of a grave conflict between the races.
27. At the same time, there is no lessening of the explosive danger attendant on the continuing confrontation in the Middle East, where an accommodation of the violently clashing interests which have plagued us recurrently since 1948 is not yet in sight, despite the obligation of all concerned to settle their differences by peaceful means in accordance with the clearly expressed provisions of the Charter.
28. Not enough has been done to enhance and preserve peace and stability in the Middle East, primarily because the interests of the big Powers are also intertwined in this very difficult problem. The success of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in advancing and securing a settlement in the area will depend not only on the attitude of the parties directly concerned but also on that of the world community.
29. Just six weeks ago, the world witnessed the unfortunate military occupation of a United Nations Member State in flagrant contravention of the United Nations Charter. This act of one of the big Powers and some of its allies has certainly heightened tension and set back what seemed to be promising steps toward East-West détente.
30. Our Secretary-General in the introduction to his annual report has warned of the consequences of a “serious decline in the standards of international ethics and morality” [A/7201/Add.1, para. 174]; has frankly focused attention on the dangers in the international situation; and has prudently called for appropriate remedial action to reverse this ominous trend.
31. The question of international peace and security is the central issue upon which world order depends. The manner in which this critical and delicate problem is solved could determine the fate of mankind. The degree of our achievement in this direction will depend on the strength of man’s determination; and any lack of resolution on our part will dangerously jeopardize our success and sadly diminish our determination.
32. In restating his foreign policy and expressing Liberia’s commitment to universal peace, the President of Liberia in his inaugural address on 1 January 1968 declared, among other things:
“We shall continue to work for peace at home and contribute to universal peace to the maximum of our abilities. We shall not only endeavour to seek peace but to pursue it with all our might. We shall not only strive to be a peace-loving nation but we shall act upon that principle.
“We believe in the principles contained in the Treaty signed at Paris on 27 August 1928, commonly referred to as the Kellogg-Briand Pact, because it condemns recourse to war and renounces it as an instrument of national policy. While the United Nations Charter places an obligation on all Member States to settle their international disputes by peaceful means and some believe that this represents an advance, we do not think it is enough. I think that an open and positive statement from the United Nations outlawing war is necessary.
“We will prepare and submit to the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity proposals, similar to the principles contained in the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which will propose the outlawing of force and the recourse to war to be applied as a fundamental principle on a universal basis.
“In view of the tremendous nuclear and thermonuclear power in the hands of some nations it behooves mankind to seek a formula by which a global war can be averted and man saved from annihilation.
“We wonder whether the super-Powers and the other permanent Members of the Security Council would realize the responsibility they owe to mankind and regard themselves as guardians and custodians of world peace under the aegis of the Security Council.
“We will recommend that the General Assembly authorize a study with the view of making compulsory judicial determination of disputes involving juridical issues with particular emphasis on the enlargement of the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.”
33. The Liberian delegation will undertake appropriate consultations with a view to finding out whether action embodying those proposals can be successfully undertaken.
34. In this connexion I think it important to bring to the Assembly’s attention a relevant portion of the Secretary-General’s introduction to his annual report. He said:
“In my concluding observations last year I drew attention ‘to the urgent need for States to have wider recourse, in their relations with other States, to the various means for the pacific settlement of disputes’. In this context I drew attention to the availability of the International Court of Justice, as a principal organ of the United Nations, for the settlement of legal disputes.” [A/7201/Add.1, para. 168.]
35. Peaceful coexistence — I should say peace in the world — requires that we be tolerant of others and their ideas. A genuine search for solutions to all of these problems will test the resoluteness and willingness of man in the pursuit of peace. The same kind and degree of responsibility attaches to the international community for the support of the peace-keeping operations of the United Nations. This important aspect of its activities, so unfortunately neglected of late, has become indispensable to the maintenance of international peace and security, the fundamental basis and ultimate aspiration of the United Nations and the expressed desire of its Members.
36. But it is not enough merely to wish for or expect the voluntary growth and development of international peace and security. Ample evidence exists and abundant experience has been provided that hope must be joined with effort and determination if expectations are to materialize. The maintenance of international peace and security, the very reason for our existence, should not be allowed to hang in the balance because of an interpretation of words based on selfish and partisan considerations. My delegation calls for a fresh approach to the whole problem of United Nations peace-keeping so that the dream of international security on which our Organization was founded may be brought at last, and while there is yet time, a little closer to reality.
37. In a climate of instability and unrest the response to the perennial call for arms control and disarmament remains hesitant and unsatisfactory. Among others, the pressing and most urgent question of our time, that of general and complete disarmament, is now almost at a Stalemate. It is strange that a problem of such overriding importance falls short of evoking that sense of urgency without which no practical solution is ever likely to be found. In any case, I have come reluctantly to the conclusion, which I suspect many of my fellow representatives share, that the goal of general and complete disarmament will elude us so long as we are unable to find adequate solutions to the problems of unrest, instability and tensions generated by our selfish acts.
38. A disturbing and indeed frightening feature of this question is the tremendous effort among nations to increase their supply of arms and to participate in the race. This State of affairs, confirming the bleak assertion that mankind is incapable of learning anything of value from his mistakes, necessarily intensifies apprehensions and suspicions. It is
impossible and in fact undesirable to prevent the advance of science, but it is possible and necessary, in the interest of mankind, to control the direction in which these advances are made and utilized.
39. There are social conditions in large and small pockets among the population of the world the improvement of which would doubtless be more beneficial and profitable than the uses in which some of our energies are consumed at the present time. In order to obtain the highest benefit from our efforts man must choose between the path which leads to self-destruction and that which would preserve his existence and provide the greatest benefits for him and his posterity.
40. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [resolution 2373 (XXII)], which has been accepted by a large number of States, is a step in. the right direction, but nothing more. If we consider its pitfalls and some of the consequences of its weaknesses, a rather dreadful awareness overtakes us. In the debate on the draft treaty, at the 1568th meeting of the First Committee, at the resumed twenty-second session, the Liberian representative stated that the draft seemed basically to be concerned more with the non-proliferation of nuclear States than with the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and that it was an alarming misconception of what was actually required as it provided only for horizontal non-proliferation and not vertical non-proliferation.
41. Scepticism also surrounds the efficacy of the Treaty because of the non-participation of certain existing nuclear Powers. And this feeling is dramatized by evidence of the continued development of these deadly weapons by those Powers. These and other no less important reasons support the widely held view that persistent efforts, coupled with a genuine readiness, must be exerted in order to ensure progress towards the significant goal we have all set ourselves.
42. The achievement on the question of outer space is, by and large, noteworthy and the success gratifying. The importance of the accomplishments in this area is and should be viewed more properly not only as a significant step in the right direction, but also as evidence of man’s resolve to control his destiny and as confirmation of his capacity and his will to surmount the obstacles, no matter how formidable, that lie in his path both on this earth and beyond it.
43. A similar problem which poses itself for solution is the question of the sea-bed and the ocean floor and the subsoil thereof, beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. This vast area of our globe, covering five sevenths of the surface of the earth, could provide a spark for rivalries which might provoke yet another threat to international peace and security.
44. Here, as in outer space, the ability to avoid disorder and to maintain peace will be tested by man’s efforts and his genius in devising means of regulating activities in the intricate and challenging context of scientific and technological advances. At the moment, the acquisition of the expertise we need in order to deal with the problem of the ocean floor has more than kept pace with the emergence of the problem itself, but the tempo in this new and novel field must be maintained so that we may be equipped to grapple with the political, economic and social consequences, not all of which can be foreseen.
45. Fortunately, there is a circumstance that distinguishes this problem from that which confronts us in cuter space. It is our possession of considerable knowledge of the nature and extent of the mineral resources on the ocean floor, which are, of course, of greater proximity and therefore more easily examined than those or the moon or the planets.
46. Nevertheless, although a universally acceptable solution regarding the ocean floor does not seem to be less difficult than those related to outer space, my delegation calls upon the world community to devise a régime in this area which would provide equal benefits and protection for all and, above all, maintain international peace and security.
47. There are few issues, if any, that have so clogged the records of the United Nations, demanded and consumed greater attention, and so effectively thwarted the efforts of this Organization than the question of Namibia, formerly South West Africa.
48. The South African problem is almost coextensive with the life of the United Nations itself. Equally wearisome, dogged and unworthy has been the contempt for the efforts of the Organization demonstrated by the South African Government. That Government, by defying the recommendations and decisions of this Organization, challenges and ignores the very foundation of the United Nations and the purposes for which it stands. Among these purposes are “respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples” and “respect for human rights and for fundamental freedom for all without distinction as to race...”.
49. The non-recognition by South Africa of the United Nations Commissioner for South West Africa and the recent outrageous trial in Pretoria of Namibian freedom fighters put into focus the need to take positive measures to accord the people of Namibia the right to determine their future.
50. The failure of the Assembly to achieve this objective highlights once again the need for the strengthening of the United Nations. For a number of reasons, including the intransigence of the Government of South Africa and the co-operation it receives from some Member States, ultimate action against it involves deep-rooted economic and political considerations. Plans for concerted, decisive action calculated to force a change invariably come up against these considerations.
51. Another important and frustrating factor is the kind of perverted opposition to the South African Government to be found in actions and attitudes of some powerful States. It is extremely discomforting to note lip-service condemnation of the atrocities of a Government by the same Governments which organize and provide economic support for it. This is the case with South Africa. There is no lack of evidence of repressive measures imposed by South Africa through its abhorrent racial policy of apartheid, There is no absence of events to prove the extension by that Government of that heinous policy to its illegal administration of South West Africa.
52. Political and economic exploitation has now become the basic principle on which the Governments in southern Africa — including South Africa, Portugal and now the illegal régime of lan Smith — are organized and function, virtually with impunity. Day after day, reports reveal the intensification of repressive measures imposed by those Governments, resulting in atrocities in complete violation of the principles laid down in the Charter of the United Nations, contrary to public opinion and in spite of resolutions and condemnations by the community of nations.
53. On the one hand, to take a dogmatic position in prosecuting apartheid, as well as to continue to deprive the people of South West Africa of equal rights and of the right to self-determination, is completely to disregard and ignore how great is the size of that part of the world which frowns upon, condemns and opposes this policy. On the other hand, to allow the administration of that pernicious and nefarious policy to go unchecked, is to nourish a destructive catalyst in the body of the Organization.
54. Developments in the Rhodesian crisis involve inconsistencies which do not appear to permit an easy and foreseeable solution. The direction and extent to which emphasis on this problem has shifted can be portrayed by comparison of developments since the unilateral declaration of independence. At that time, the United Kingdom expressly limited the measures to be taken against Rhodesia, and even those it was decided to apply were partial and weak.
55. In December 1966, the Security Council decided, by its resolution 232 (1966), to impose selective mandatory economic sanctions against Southern Rhodesia, which by definition and evidence proved to be ineffective. The Council found earlier that the Ian Smith régime was a threat to international peace and security. On 29 May 1968, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 253 (1968), by which it decided to impose, under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, comprehensive mandatory economic sanctions against Southern Rhodesia.
56. Since the unilateral declaration of independence, the Smith régime is continued its intransigence. The measures were doomed because of economic assistance from other countries; the virtual encouragement of the régime by the United Kingdom Government, as well as its futile oil blockade; unchecked illegal and wanton legislative measures applied by the régime in Salisbury and designed systematically to eradicate the few existing rights which Africans had in Rhodesia; and finally, by that régime’s recent tragic and
shocking assassination of political prisoners.
57. The General Assembly has passed many resolutions reaffirming the inalienable right of the peoples of the territories under Portuguese domination to freedom and independence in accordance with resolution 1514 (XV), and calling upon Portugal to apply immediately the principle of self-determination. The action of the Portuguese Government is nevertheless disappointing. It has completely ignored not only the resolutions of the General Assembly, but also those of the Security Council, and it has also held in contempt international public opinion, by its failure to implement any of the resolutions or to grant to the inhabitants of its territories in Africa the right of self-determination.
58. Repressive measures designed and perpetrated to stifle the inherent right of peoples to self-determination must eventually fail. Such oppression in contemporary times carries an inherent contradiction and can lead only to disaster. Oppression is the greatest calamity. It diverts and pollutes the best energies of man, of oppressed and oppressor alike. Political exploitation can only disfigure him who exploits. It places him before alternatives having equally disastrous consequences: daily injustice inflicted for his benefit, on the one hand, or necessary self-sacrifice, on the other.
59. Let me repeat, it is in Portugal’s own interest to formulate new policies which will enable the peoples in the territories under its domination to make a free choice of the future direction they desire to pursue. It will sooner or later be forced to do this, even if it refuses now, by historical events which it cannot control.
60. On the whole southern African problem, I should like to emphasize what I said before the twenty-first session of the General Assembly on 10 October 1966 [1435th meeting], that the African territories under Portuguese Administration, Rhodesia, South West Africa and South Africa are elements of a single problem, and that action is required to settle the problem they represent jointly. Thus, attempts to find an isolated solution to one element alone are bound to be frustrated.
61. The fact is that there is not the will on the part of the principal trading partners of South Africa to face the serious and critical situation existing in southern Africa caused by the abhorrent practice of apartheid in South Africa, by the defiance by South Africa of the United Nations in South West Africa, by the repressive measures of Portugal in trying to prevent the people in its Territories in Africa from exercising the inherent right of self-determination, and by the illegal régime of Ian Smith which seeks to
ignore the rights of the African majority in order to create more privileges for the European minority.
62. We are delighted to note the progress that has been made in Equatorial Guinea and its recent attainment of independence. It is hoped that Spain will take similar action in its other colonies in Africa.
63. Insurrections in many parts of the world, though only of local significance, do sometimes create social and humanitarian problems. One of these problems is that of refugees. According to United Nations statistics, the number of refugees was put at 740,000 in December 1966. The present figure is near the 2.5 million mark, and it is doubtless increasing day by day. It is no wonder, other things remaining equal, that the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees finds itself in mounting financial difficulties.
64. The problem is perhaps more acute in Africa today than elsewhere. The question here, as it seems, is not one on which any conclusion can be reached. Empirical solutions will depend at this stage, at least on the African scene, on the amount of international co-operation given the UNHCR and the degree of national responsibility taken for the care and repatriation of refugees as well as the elimination of conditions creating them.
65. The enigma with which the developing countries are faced in the economic world is so paralysing that it is feared that its effect is likely to disturb international peace. It is regrettable, but not otherwise surprising, that the economic problems of the developing countries are exacerbated mainly by disparity and other disadvantages in their trade relations with the developed countries. This conclusion, which is based on facts, is confirmed by reasons which have prevented the achievement of the United Nations Development Decade target of 5 per cent per annum.
66. Although preparation and expectations were not matched by results, it can perhaps be said that the second session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) succeeded in clarifying and emphasizing the economic and trading state of affairs between the developing and developed countries. In this connexion, ‘it is important to observe in the words of the Secretary-General of UNCTAD the following principles:
“Development is the primary responsibility of the countries that propose to develop.
“In order to discharge this responsibility, the peripheral countries need the co-operation of the centres.
“The co-operation of the centres should not be residual — as it has been so far — but should be given a high priority; and it cannot be based on the immediate trade interest of this or that industrial country, nor on its particular intention to secure certain political concessions, but on the aim of solving...the problem of development.”
67. The acceptance of these general principles, which my delegation endorses, involves and demands, on the part of all countries, developed and developing alike, an affidavit, not a mere acknowledgement, and it necessitates a commitment, not a simple approval.
68. The scarcity of capital from the developed countries, both quantitatively and qualitatively, has added acrimony to the economic plight of the developing nations. The situation is fast deteriorating deeply into “the red". No less important in this consideration are the onerous debt repayment loads, population increases and the whole gamut of international economic drawbacks exerting pressure and influence on the economy of developing countries.
69. My delegation hopes that the recent more encouraging trend in international trade, together with the experience and increased knowledge and understanding of the difficulties of the respective partners, will encourage and stimulate an agreeable and necessary improvement in the economic and trade relations between the developed and developing countries. The long-range interests of developed countries and world peace dictate a change in their attitude and a greater willingness to assist the developing countries in improving their conditions and living standards.
70. Finally, conditions of tension, unrest, instability and frustration which have caused a deterioration in the world situation require that our best efforts be directed towards facilitating progress towards a just and lasting peace, for the alternative might be very catastrophic.
71. It is in this spirit that the Liberian delegation at this session will approach the several items on our agenda with the hope that working co-operatively decisions can be made at this Assembly which will move us ahead on the path of positive and creative action in the search for peace and international co-operation.