144. The delegation of the Republic of Rwanda takes real pleasure in joining with those speakers who have preceded it at this rostrum to extend its warmest congratulations to Mr. Emilio Arenales on his splendid election to the presidency of the twenty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly. This gives us the opportunity to rejoice at the election of a representative from Latin America, from that continent with which Africa has the closest co-operative relations, particularly with regard to problems of decolonization and of economic and social development. I would therefore repeat to Mr. Emilio Arenales our desire to co-operate with him in carrying out his weighty task, which we hope may be fruitful.
145. I should be remiss were I not to pay special tribute to Mr. Corneliu Manescu, whose great good humour, impartiality and political and diplomatic acumen contributed to the fruitful outcome of the labours of the General Assembly’s twenty-second session.
146. The Republic of Rwanda has aimed its entire foreign policy at the total execution of the provisions contained in the Charter signed at San Francisco, relying as it does on co-operation among nations for safeguarding peace and security and for bringing about better living conditions for all peoples.
147. Here I should like to recall the statement made by the Head of State of Rwanda, Grégoire Kayiblanda, on the occasion of the admission of our young Republic to the United Nations. He said:
"The Republic of Rwanda is among those who have already accomplished so much for the true decolonization that leads to better conditions for development and for progress. We are among those who are struggling for the equitable sharing of the fruits of progress in the many forms of technical and financial assistance. We are among those who are trying to eliminate methods based on discrimination and violence. We are among those who are working to create or to strengthen in a realistic way the joint bodies for co-operation among nations. We are among those who are trying in every peaceful way to ensure and to promote the fullest possible exercise of the fundamental freedoms.” [1122nd meeting, para, 103]
148. Those goals, which were valid a few years ago, are becoming more and more imperative at the present time when even the “have” countries — those countries that might have been thought less vulnerable — are experiencing political and social movements that are upsetting communities in their search for greater well-being and a new equilibrium.
149. In fact we are witnessing a renewed outbreak of troubles. The current year has added its train of explosive situations to those problems that were already acute in 1967. To single out only a few, there is the internecine struggle raging in Nigeria, while conciliatory missions of the Organization of African Unity, the international agencies and the Holy See, to which are added the appeals of the United Nations Secretary-General, are being frustrated in their desire to bring an end to hostilities between brother communities.
150. Furthermore, the new travel restrictions imposed on the inhabitants of West Berlin by East Germany are increasing Berlin’s isolation and thereby interfering with prospects for détente in that vital area of the European continent.
151. Furthermore, the most advanced countries are showing caution in development assistance, anxious as they are to fall back on a kind of outmoded “Cartierism" sometimes guided by the justifiable need to solve domestic problems, sometimes apathetic, and sometimes unjustly encouraged by the instability that prevails in some developing countries but is nothing more than an outgrowth of the dissatisfaction that accompanies their national evolution.
152. Lastly, the difficulties of a monetary system in search of new formulae have imperilled the very foundation of international trade.
153. All those questions, I repeat, are added to the still unsolved question of the Middle East, where the spirit of conciliation and mutual respect has not yet prevailed.
154. Both Biafra and West Berlin emit from time to time louder echoes than the Paris talks, which nevertheless form one of the most encouraging sources of hope in our troubled world. The Government of the Republic of Rwanda is therefore following with the greatest attention the progress made towards terminating a conflict which, for human, political and economic reasons, forms one of the major concerns of the entire international community.
155. My delegation firmly believes that good will on both sides can enable such important human and material resources to be employed henceforth for the greater benefit of the populations. It is for that reason that the Paris talks must provide more than merely an opportunity to make speeches aimed at improving morale and inspiring confidence in the allies of one or the other side. Those talks must lead to workable and reasonable compromises. We therefore hope with all our hearts that the first step towards a termination of the South Viet-Namese conflict can lead to a settlement in which selfish views and questions of prestige — which are for that matter out of place — will give way to reason and to the spirit of conciliation and mutual respect.
156. The delegation of the Republic of Rwanda is of the opinion that cessation of the bombing and hostilities on both sides would contribute greatly to creating an atmosphere of détente and wisdom among the negotiators.
157. When the Paris talks got under way, the Republic of Rwanda highly appreciated the decision made by the President of the United States to limit the bombings to the region south of the 17th parallel in order to facilitate negotiations. Nevertheless, we had hoped that that decision might meet with a greater determination from the other belligerent party to seek out ways of bringing peace to the region. We are hopeful that the moment will come when both parties will understand that that endless stalemated war is to no one’s benefit.
158. The policy of the Republic of Rwanda with regard to the countries and peoples still under colonial rule remains unchanged, especially with regard to the so-called Portuguese territories of Mozambique, Angola and Guinea (Bissau); the same is also true with regard to Rhodesia, where a racist minority has usurped power; Namibia, where South Africa is unlawfully maintaining its policy of racial segregation; so-called French Somaliland; Gibraltar; Equatorial Guinea, and other territories aspiring to freedom and independence. Rwanda believes that the struggle that has been undertaken for the independence of those countries must continue: it is prepared to play its part in that noble and legitimate struggle.
159. However, we believe that that struggle cannot be waged by force of arms: we recommend that our Organization and each of its Members support through negotiations the demands for independence that political parties and social institutions are constantly making to the dominating nations.
160. With increasing frequency, liberation movements created outside the country are showing a gross incapacity to achieve the desired goal of national independence. There is even a danger that the colonizing nations will succeed through all sorts of corrupt methods in isolating and neutralizing those liberation movements set up outside the country to be decolonized. In addition, armed struggle has been condemned henceforth by the conscience of mankind.
161. Our Organization — and the Trusteeship Council in particular — must arrive at a practical and effective formula for supporting peacefully but firmly the political parties within the country itself that demand their country’s independence from the colonial Power.
162. Rwanda views with concern the problem of Rhodesia, which is unsolved owing to the complicity of the economic and financial interests of the great Powers that are allowing the coloured peoples to be deprived of their rights to human dignity and self-determination. Rwanda deplores that the manoeuvrings of the British Government and Parliament are preventing the economic boycott decided upon by the Security Council from achieving its intended aims.
163. We feel a similar concern with regard to the attitude of the South African Government, which continues to ignore various United Nations resolutions adopted to assist the populations subject to the Pretoria régime. We are hopeful that this session can decide on effective measures designed to establish a régime of freedom and human dignity everywhere.
164. Rwanda rejects the argument according to which populations that have not yet reached a sufficient degree of maturity cannot claim to become independent. In fact, that is a harmful thesis, since the yoke of a foreign government has never created political maturity otherwise than through arousing in oppressed peoples an awareness of the abuses of the colonizing Power and thereby inciting them to violence in order to obtain justice. Furthermore, we can counter certain outmoded sophistries by saying that there is no society that does not want to decide its own future for itself.
165. Therefore we are renewing our fullest support for all countries, African and other, that are trying to free themselves from the colonial yoke. At the same time we express our gratitude to the countries that were forerunners in the decolonization movement.
166. We are most grateful to those colonizing countries which each year heed and respond favourably to the appeals for self-determination made from this rostrum.
167. This year we have welcomed the independence of Mauritius and Swaziland and their entry into the United Nations. Soon, if the United Nations and especially the Security Council are willing to play their part in that disturbing question, we will be welcoming — at least, we hope so — the independence of Gibraltar, Equatorial Guinea, Rhodesia — but not a Rhodesia dominated by a white minority — and Namibia.
168. With regard to the refugees, Rwanda pays tribute to the United Nations High Commissioner for the great humanitarian work that has already been carried out to assist displaced populations and to prevent aid to those unfortunate people from becoming a means of subversion aimed against the countries of origin. Further in that connexion, countries that receive refugees must be wary that the territory they generously offer to refugee populations is not used as a supply area for subversive movements in other countries.
169. As for the problem of the divided countries such as Germany, Korea, Viet-Nam and China, the Republic of Rwanda favours search for any method by which a return to territorial unity can be achieved. Rwanda stresses its devotion to those countries that are known to respect the principles of the United Nations Charter and are putting forth real efforts to contribute to the economic and social development of other United Nations Members.
170. Turning specifically to the question of China, my delegation regrets that the Peking leaders are not prepared to abide by the principles that guide our Organization in building a better world free from subversion, oppression and poverty.
171. With regard to the question of Chinese representation in the United Nations, the position taken by Rwanda is as follows: China already has a seat in the United Nations and even has a privileged place on the Security Council. Advocates of the admission of what they call “big” China and the expulsion of “small" China are implicitly the “two Chinas” thesis, which my delegation is completely unable to support. We consider that the seat of the Chinese State is already filled. As for the legitimacy or the credentials of its representative, we consider that to be an internal matter that the factions within the Chinese nations can settle themselves.
172. In our view there is only one China, and its seat within the United Nations is occupied by the Chinese representative. It remains for us to support any actions that can promote a meeting between Taipei and Peking at which they can set aside the impassioned aspects of their problem and seek out peaceful and effective ways of establishing a national government that can serve the interests and progress of that great and friendly nation.
173. I cannot refrain from mentioning the sensitive Middle East question, concerning which several delegations have already spoken. The Republic of Rwanda, which maintains real bonds of friendship and co-operation with both parties to the conflict, adjures the belligerents to put an end to the state of war existing in that vital area of the world. The confronting parties must be encouraged to meet to discuss their dispute among themselves in an atmosphere imbued with the spirit of legality and mutual respect. The first step towards liquidating a conflict that has already caused so much suffering and bitterness must be a verbal as well as a military de-escalation. However, we have no intention of condemning or exonerating either belligerent: my delegation stresses that discussions are the only method that can lead to a lasting understanding whereby violence ceases to be a “way of life". We wish to make it clear that the attempts being made to wipe out Israel as a nation are not only destined to meet with failure, but are creating the acts of violence that we all condemn.
174. I now turn to the problem of peace-keeping. When the United Nations Charter was signed, the world conditions that it was designed to remedy were very different from what they are today: hotbeds of tension, albeit very grave at the time, were nevertheless localized, whereas now they are breaking out on all sides daily.
175. Only one country possessed the atom bomb; today we Officially have five countries that pose an incalculable threat to the world. The number of United Nations Members, very small at that time, has grown to 125.
176. In other words, when we consider the nature of international relations, the multiplicity of the problems discussed here and the varied composition of the Organization, that instrument, the Charter, no longer adequately meets the needs of our era.
177. The peace-keeping system set forth in the Charter, which remains the province of a limited number of privileged Members, no longer answers present-day needs. Indeed, all Member States of the Organization should be able to take part in seeking a solution to problems of world peace and security.
178. Rwanda is among those countries that believe that a new system of peace-keeping could be devised under which all countries would contribute according to their means. The establishment of a permanent security force within the framework of the United Nations could provide at least a temporary solution to the problem of peace-keeping. We are aware of the complex nature of the problems to which the establishment of such a force would give rise, especially problems of recruitment, financing, leadership and the type of equipment to be made available to that force, not forgetting the problems created by the carrying out of peace-keeping operations.
179. If my delegation dwells on the part that all States Members must play with regard to peace-keeping operations, it is because we are convinced that the United Nations must not continue to be an instrument controlled by certain Powers, but that it must be an organization that can serve peace and equilibrium throughout the world.
180. That, however, is the point: can we speak of peace and equilibrium so long as a disarmament treaty which will include China has not been signed? That is why Rwanda welcomed with satisfaction the news of the invitation extended to People’s China by the Secretary-General, U Thant, to join in the disarmament discussions at the Geneva Conference. We would wholeheartedly have hoped that the Peking authorities would reply favourably, for my delegation believes that any disarmament in which China is not a participant cannot be the general and complete disarmament towards which we are striving.
181. Can we speak of peace ind equilibrium when each year new types of both conventional and nuclear weapons are invented?
182. Rwanda had sincerely hoped that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons would have been more complete, so as to include both the horizontal and the vertical aspects of the problem. As we have stated from this rostrum on other occasions, we believe that that treaty, which was opened for signature on 1 July 1968, can only be a partial solution to the problem of disarmament. Now, a problem of such importance, that concerns both the future security and the future development of all countries, requires search not for half-measures but for solutions that meet the seriousness of the situation. No progress will be achieved so long as the nuclear countries can still endlessly increase their atomic arsenals and so long as they do not provide sufficient guarantees of security to non-nuclear countries.
183. It was with special satisfaction that we welcomed the statements of the American and Soviet Governments announcing their readiness to enter into joint negotiations aimed at reducing their offensive and defensive missile systems. We believe in the sincerity of their promises and we express the hope that these will be carried out.
184. We look forward to the moment when all United Nations Member States, large and small, freed from the need to have recourse to weapons, can devote their resources to economic and social development.
185. We believe that economic and social development is one of the principal objectives of the United Nations. And since, instead of joining in the fruitless arms race, Rwanda has devoted its every effort to achieving well-being for its peoples, my delegation would like for a few moments to draw your attention to some economic and social questions of great urgency at the present time.
186. The Republic of Rwanda wishes here to stress the efforts and the failures that we have made in the area of development.
187. The President of the Republic of Rwanda, speaking of development assistance to the African continent, stated:
"That assistance is necessary given Africa’s present stage of development, given the conditions in which each State has acceded to independence, and given the need to achieve the balance of mankind’s contemporary history.”
188. Pointing to the United Nations role in the promotion of countries’ economic progress, President Kayibanda went on to say:
“It is time that the liberation movement advanced from the preliminary stage of gaining independence and turned to more intensive action in the economic, social and cultural development of what today is correctly called the third world.”
189. Rwanda hails the efforts that have already been made towards both bilateral and multilateral assistance. My country particularly notes the new policy adopted by a number of countries, such as Germany, Canada, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands and Sweden, to increase their budget allocations for development assistance.
190. Nevertheless, appreciable as those efforts are, they are still small compared with the enormous task that remains. At the present time there is considerable pessimism with regard to development. The development crisis has this year been perhaps the most widely discussed subject in the economic and financial world; it has been created by a lack of implementation and orientation of development assistance. As early as the beginning of the
year Mr. George D. Woods, former President of the World Bank, stated at New Delhi:
“Up to now, bilateral programmes of assistance had had as one of their primary objectives helping the high-income countries themselves; they had looked towards financing export sales; towards tactical support of diplomacy, towards holding military positions thought to be strategic.”
191. Moreover, the crisis is due to the fact that assistance tends to become stagnant. Some assistance budgets are radically reduced; even trade, because of the expedients by which an attempt has been made to compensate for lack of assistance as such, gives rise to disappointments owing to the pressures brought to bear to lower the prices paid for certain agricultural and mining products; in addition, new trade restrictions are set up to protect certain industries. In this connexion Rwanda urgently directs world attention to the serious situation that the rapid development of the synthetics industries is creating for our own insufficiently-diversified economies.
192. How can it be surprising that, faced with such a situation, the development effort undertaken by some young nations has been handicapped both in the setting up and the financing of their development plans and in their efforts towards economic diversification?
193. For we cannot over-stress that the first United Nations Development Decade ended in failure; however, our disappointment is mitigated by our determination to learn as much as possible from past mistakes. Indeed, there was failure to achieve over-ambitious goals; there was failure in the discussions held at New Delhi to establish more equitable standards in international trade; there was failure in fixing realistic interest rates and terms of aid better adapted to the capacity of our weak economies to meet high foreign indebtedness.
194. Although realism forces us to accept the present limitations of bilateral aid, we should hope that we might rely at least on multilateral assistance, that donors would be generous to various United Nations agencies and regional assistance organizations. In addition, a more thorough study should be made of the feasibility of multilateral aid to our national development banks.
195. We believe that emphasis should be placed on strengthening the role and the methods of multilateral assistance, which ought to make a more substantial contribution to better planning for the second Development Decade.
196. Let us be very clear. We have no intention of extolling the useless and even detrimental proliferation of organizations that, under cover of the United Nations, would only increase problems of duplication and co-ordination. The delegation of Rwanda believes that an increase in the role and prerogatives of existing programmes could enable the United Nations better to serve our assistance needs. For example, the recently established United Nations Capital Development Fund would gain by being integrated with the United Nations Development Programme; furthermore, once a technical assistance fund were created it could provide an excellent solution to our acute lack of trained personnel by assisting in financing technicians and experts recruited by the governments concerned in addition to bilateral and multilateral assistance.
197. Still within the framework of the United Nations Development Programme, it would be desirable for the United Nations to consider making available to our governments real economic advisers, not agents who frequently act as purely diplomatic representatives. Those advisers would assist our governments in fixing our priorities and in discerning and preparing development projects to be submitted for financing by the appropriate United Nations agencies.
198. The delegation of Rwanda stresses that international co-operation for economic, social and educational development is a pressing duty that no country can shirk. The achievement of that goal requires not merely the study of special projects and the financing of those projects; nor does it require merely sending technicians and experts. At the present stage it also requires serious economic and sociological studies, that must include the entire world, and especially the Third World. Such studies are one of the basic elements in the joint planning of national and international democratic development; they represent the best method of guiding development on the path of world peace.
199. In conclusion, the delegation of Rwanda expresses its great satisfaction at having been able to contribute to one of the United Nations gatherings, which proves that, notwithstanding differences between peoples and nations, mankind is aspiring to a new order in which an atmosphere of détente, justice and co-operation will prevail.