126. I should like, Mr. President, at the outset of my statement to transmit through you the best wishes of the delegation of the Central African Republic for the speedy and complete recovery of Mr. Arenales, the President of the Assembly at its twenty-third session, who is confined to bed with an unexpected illness at the very moment when, anxious as we are that our work should be carried to a successful conclusion, we have such need of his wealth of experience of international problems and of the wisdom with which he habitually approaches them. The Central African delegation fully realizes that it was the outstanding personal qualities of Mr. Arenales which led the members of the Organization unanimously to elect that statesman to the highest office of the General Assembly, thereby paying a special tribute, through him personally, to Guatemala, his beautiful and dynamic country.
127. The Central African delegation in welcoming his election and that of our eminent colleagues elected as the other officers of our Assembly, wishes most whole-heartedly to congratulate them and to assure them of its full co-operation.
128. It is with real pleasure, too, that my delegation associates itself with the warm tribute paid to Mr. Arenales’ predecessor on his retirement from the Presidency; I refer to Mr. Manescu, the Romanian statesman who impressed us so much by his tact and outstanding competence, which enabled us to work in a quiet and friendly atmosphere throughout a particularly arduous and difficult session.
129. Lastly, I take a very special pleasure in paying tribute to the lucid political courage with which U Thant, our secretary-General, is performing his lofty and at the same time thankless tasks.
130. May I also be permitted to express to him my delegation’s sincere gratitude for his perseverance in the specific matter of the use of the working languages. As we have said, it is not merely sentiment but rather a spirit of justice and fairness which leads us to follow with great interest the application of resolution 2359 B (XXII) of 19 December 1967 regarding this important problem. The language of Molière and the language of Shakespeare should, in our view, enjoy equal status as working tools essential for better mutual understanding; we therefore take great pleasure in the Secretariat’s untiring and positive efforts to implement resolution 2359 B (XXII) fully and effectively,
131. I should now like to turn to the brother States which have come to join our great family in order to discharge my most pleasant duty — to welcome them on behalf of the Central African Government and of my delegation. We wish to extend to their peoples our best wishes for their happiness and prosperity.
132. By means of creative work—the type of work whereby men raise themselves in a new-found dignity — my country, the Central African Republic, is daily consolidating its domestic policy ever more strongly by an orderly process — an earnest of peace and security for its people — and is thus making its modest contribution to the maintenance of world peace and security.
133. In the Central African Republic we believe that internal peace — the peace governing day-to-day relationships among citizens — should spread beyond the national frontiers and consolidate broad and indivisible peace among nations and peoples. We also believe that equality among our nationals on our territory should strengthen equality among all men everywhere, be they rich or poor. We also believe that fraternity, which grows stronger day by day among all Central Africans, will lead to a more human vision of widespread charity. In the last analysis, we thus hope that equality and fraternity in this sense will promote the spread of closer co-operation throughout the world, a co-operation growing ever more fruitful in all areas and making for that truth uttered by the philosopher who spoke of the need “to share the difficulties of others, to bear the cross of others for a moment on our own shoulder, to dry tears and to call forth a smile”.
134. This truth which symbolizes love for one’s neighbour, with all that it entails in active solidarity, is not conceivable without fraternity, since fraternity cannot exist without mutual understanding and hence without peace, the prerequisite for which in every relationship and at every level is full and lasting equality designed to promote peaceful co-existence among neighbours and partners near or far. Peaceful co-existence, in our view, implies that every State shall abstain from intervening or interfering in the domestic affairs of every other State and shall display the necessary tolerance with respect to its partners, regardless of their political ,economic or social structure.
135. Furthermore, we believe that when two countries divided by war are engaged in a dispute which can develop into a threat to the peace and security of the world community, the only parties which should appear before the United Nations to state their grievances should be those of the parties to the dispute which have expressly recognized its authority and jurisdiction to consider and settle that dispute.
136. The Government of the Central African Republic believes that the policy of true peaceful co-existence should not be sacrificed in certain cases to an unduly strict interpretation of the concept of universality, which should of course be a characteristic feature of our Organization. This means that my delegation will accord all requisite attention, first, to the important question of determining which of the two Republics — that which has established itself on Formosa or that which has its capital at Peking — should legally represent the Chinese people and, secondly, to the no less important question of the two Koreas.
137. In my Government’s view, the universal character of our Organization should not be pressed at the expense of its moral authority. As we see it, peace and equality, fraternity and international solidarity should be the foundation on which the United Nations rests. We have placed our full confidence in the Organization, we have acceded to its Charter and have undertaken to respect the principles embodied in it, hoping that with every day that passes the United Nations will be better able to translate into deeds the ideals which presided at its establishment and which should justify its continuing existence and its real utility: peaceful co-existence among all the peoples of the world in order to preserve international peace and security and make worldwide co-operation based upon human fraternity a living reality.
138. It was unquestionably in order to promote peace that, pending an agreement on the complete prohibition of nuclear weapons tests, some of us signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [resolution 2373 (XXII), annex] which, we were assured, was in itself a decisive step towards disarmament.
139. It was unquestionably to promote peace, too, that one year later we saw fit to ratify the Treaty on the Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the moon and other Celestial Bodies [resolution 2222 (XXI), annex], because of the beneficial results which we were told would flow from it.
140. It was unquestionably to promote the maintenance of peace that the Security Council has likewise adopted resolutions from time to time, notably resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, the full implementation of which we had hoped would reduce within a reasonable time the tensions prevailing in certain areas, more particularly in the Middle East, where a peace that is honourable to the parties concerned is essential.
141. It was unquestionably to promote peace, lastly, that the General Assembly with genuine enthusiasm proclaimed 1968 as the International Year for Human Rights [resolution 2339 (XXII)] as a logical corollary to the Universal Declaration o Human Rights.
142. We believed, therefore, that prospects would grow brighter, that the cold war would be eliminated for ever and that the international order would ultimately improve. Unfortunately when we read the report by U Thant, our Secretary-General [A/7201 and Add.1], who has outlined a not very encouraging picture of the international situation at present, we find that the position is quite different. For we still hear certain theoreticians declare and maintain that a distinction can be drawn between dynamic apartheid and static apartheid, whereas both of those conflicting theories lead in fact to a racial segregation which depersonalizes human beings. Even worse, we continue to accept with indifference the impertinence of a Member. State which refuses to grant the United Nations an entry visa to Namibia, when the whole world can see that the great Powers hold the key to the problem.
143. furthermore, we are complacently tolerating the obstinacy of another Member State which, misguided by hollow legal concepts, claims to regard African countries entrusted to its administration as parts of its national territory, whereas in the name of self-determination we have solemnly and unequivocally decided that man shall be restored to his full dignity. Need we also refer in this context to the notorious rebellion of the Smith régime?
144. Lastly, whereas we used to be advised in the past to avoid fratricidal wars, even more inhuman wars are now being fostered in many areas, notably in Nigeria, which certain unconfessed interests wish to Balkanize and weaken to the detriment of its national unity, without which African unity would become merely a utopian idea.
145. In short, we perceive the persistence of rivalries and quarrels among peoples and nations, rivalries and quarrels which may well some day place before the eyes of men the horrifying vision of an atomized and lifeless earth, when it is the heartfelt wish of all humanity that the sum of the intelligence and efforts of all should be used to set aside the threat of war for all time and to promote civilization throughout the world. This concludes the first part of my statement.
146. I now come to the second part of my statement, and I should like to remind you that the Central African Republic is a continental area which is essentially agricultural. That means that my country cannot remain indifferent to the problem of under-development. That problem is not only economic; it is financial and technical; it is political, social and moral. It arises at both the national and the international levels. Appeals for joint international action, and, in particular, appeals for development assistance have come not only from the developing countries, but also from enlightened public opinion in the industrialized countries. Thus it was in this very forum that we were led to believe that it was in the interests of a reduction in the growing gap between rich and poor to convene a conference on trade and development within the framework of the first United Nations Development Decade.
147. Relying on the Geneva Final Act and the Charter of Algiers we went to New Delhi with the will not only to say forcefully to the industrialized countries: "We sell you less and cheaper; you sell us more and dearer", but also to condemn utterly the easy approach of appeasing the third world by stating a few basic principles; in short, to see those generous principles translated into a body of rules having binding force. Indeed, what we poor countries had to do when confronting the rich countries at New Delhi was to negotiate and finally implement the Charter of Algiers, that is to say to assert the third world’s right to development.
148. Our exchanges of views enabled us to identify those of our friends who are sincere, or our “positive” friends, and those who are jess so, or our “negative” friends. Among our “‘positive” friends it was very pleasing and encouraging to find France and other well-endowed countries who remain faithful to the undertakings subscribed at Geneva in 1964. On the other hand, some of these nations proved to be “negative” friends, who strive to explain their domestic financial difficulties by means of hollow academic arguments or who tend to consider financial and technical assistance to the under-privileged countries as normal compensation for colonial exploitation or reparation of past errors.
149. When we consider the merits of the signatories to the Geneva Final Act, we cannot help wondering how such splendid resolutions can have vanished in smoke. How indeed can we refrain from mentioning the importance of a meeting so revolutionary in its spirit and so generous in its principles as the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development held at Geneva in 1964? How can we refrain from noting that it might have inaugurated a new era of international co-operation?
150. The truth is that our “negative” friends did not know that we went to New Delhi convinced in our hearts that the New Delhi Conference could not be simply a pre-arranged meeting between willing beggars and conscience-salving charity, but rather a congress of the combined forces of the proletarian countries to demolish the Bastille of an iniquitous international economic system which is enriching the wealthy nations more and more every day by daily impoverishing even further the nations which are already poor, the former in most cases owing their privileged position less to their own national resources and their financial strength than to their technical progress and their advanced technology.
151. Speaking of the United Nations one observer notes that “endless speeches are made there ...”. Thus, one after another we come here and speak of disarmament, of outer space, of the maintenance of peace, of human rights, of apartheid, of decolonization and self-determination and of international co-operation in the economic and social development of all the peoples on earth. All of us have drawn attention to what we regarded as the basic political acts which we have performed on behalf of the common interest which is vital to us all. Reviewing the range of these recommendations or decisions, we have unfortunately found that not all of them have been applied in practice, and we have implicitly recognized, with some bitterness, that the United Nations is certainly the place where not only “endless speeches are made", but where there are also "votes which never lead to action ..."; we have thus not completely disarmed our minds, much less our hearts.
152. So far as political developments are concerned, no matter whether it is general and complete disarmament, a better international order or self-determination, we are bound to recognize that delays here and there are still continuing to promote the creation, or the persistence, of centres of tension, the responsibility for which, we believe, rests primarily with those of the Member States which are the legal guardians of world peace and security. In the broad field of economic and social development, instead of helping to “feed, house, care for, clothe and educate the most proletarian of the twentieth century”, there are many wealthy countries which saturate us with generous declarations that lead to nothing. How, therefore, can we contemplate the future with any excessive optimism when the first Decade which is now coming to an end has, on balance, produced only disappointment and bitterness? The sum of these contradictions in the area of both political and economic co-operation shows that La Bruyère was right in saying:
“It costs the great ones of this world so little to give you nothing but words, and their standing makes it so unnecessary for them to abide by their fine words that it is modesty on their part not to make even more lavish promises.”
153. In any event, it is disturbing to note, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Central African Republic has done, that “four Organization [is] transfixed in immobility”. Speaking of the United Nations, he stated in May 1967 that the Organization:
"... must decide to do something ... otherwise the world will not understand why our Organization does not understand and does not do what should be understood and done. That which should be understood is the voice of reason. That which should be done is what reason decides to do. What is difficult but feasible is the reasoning of the heart in the quest for reason.” [1513th meeting, para. 132.]
154. The United Nations is by definition not made up only of great Powers, even though some do suggest that it is a body directed by the great Powers and that it represents a mere semblance of communication which enables the great Powers to conceal their intentions. My delegation believes that the actions of the great and powerful combined with those of the small and weak remain decisive and enable us all to ensure both the survival and the permanence of the Organization, particularly since cur disappointments show that the hope and faith cherished by the United Nations as it faces its future are still alive. In other words, the durability of the United Nations depends upon its daily conduct towards mankind and the international conscience.
155. The peoples have perhaps never had greater need than they have today of the hope brought them by the message: peace to men of goodwill. The United Nations has been in existence for twenty-three years. By reason of its universality it now has 125 Members, both great and small, powerful and weak, rich and poor, all determined to make it a living instrument for world peace and co-operation based upon strict respect for the sovereignty of each of its Members. Yesterday, celebrating its anniversary, 24 October, the United Nations came together — as it continues to come together — not only to rejoice in its supporters (which we are) but to give expression to the hope it cherishes to live long enough to accomplish the noble tasks entrusted to it by its founders.
156. Asa human enterprise, every organization comes into being and grows. That is why it seems that the United Nations both dreads and blesses each day it exists. And it is undoubtedly in order to demonstrate its surprise and pleasure at its continued survival from one day to the next that the Organization likes to celebrate its anniversary. The flags which are flown by this huge skyscraper and thus decorate our vast premises on this special occasion not only add a note of gaiety, but also symbolize a hope that seems to be reborn, for in order to live, the Organization, like man, needs the hope brought to it by each new day. Thus, all the Member States yesterday felt their hearts beat as one, not at the martial sound cf bellicose music, but at the tuneful strains of soothing melodies. Yes, yesterday we sang of an unattainable happiness, a joy which eludes our grasp; but yet we sang too of the happiness and joy of life for which we are desperately struggling and which we shall eventually attain.
157. I feel that yesterday, on the Organization’s twenty-third anniversary, Tchaikowsky enabled us to commune together, not just in a world of weariness, torpor and lasting apathy, but also in another world, a world of hope and faith in men of goodwill who so desperately need the peace which reconciles and reunites in order to live and in order to act in the spirit of human interdependence bred by worldwide fraternity. May the United Nations, which yesterday sang of hope and faith in its future, be able to disarm both minds and hearts so as to contribute to the building of a habitable world, which will grow better day by day because it will be a world of stable peace and equal happiness for all the peoples of the world.