24. The delegation of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic would like to join in congratulating the President of the twenty-third session of the General Assembly on his election and we wish him a speedy recovery and every success in his work.
25. The general debate which is now concluding has shown that there are many problems that must be solved by concerted action. They are attracting the attention of the whole world. It is not a matter of indifference to the peoples of the world how the predominant opinion will take shape in the General Assembly in regard to the necessity of ending the American aggression against the Viet-Namese people; how the consequences of the aggression of Israel against neighbouring Arab States will be liquidated; what measures will be carried out to put an end to the arms race and to achieve disarmament; what is proposed to be done to strengthen security in various parts of the world and in the world as a whole; when the last remnants of colonialism with its policy of slavery and discrimination will be finally swept away and what steps will be taken in the interests of the economic and social progress of all the peoples.
26. The general debate and the first results of the work of the Committees of the General Assembly do not make it possible to give simple answers to these questions because at the present session, more clearly than ever before there have become apparent two contradictory approaches to the United Nations and to the consideration of the problems confronting it.
27. The Western countries responsible for the policy of the aggressive blocs created by them have not only done nothing to settle pending problems, but in recent times have steadfastly striven to worsen the situation in Europe and redoubled their activities against the socialist countries which guard peace and progress on earth.
28. At this session of the General Assembly representatives of the Western countries are trying to introduce the spirit of the cold war into relations between States and to divert the attention of the United Nations and world public opinion from their activities and plans fraught with grave danger to the cause of peace. To that end they resort not only to traditional slander and intimidation but also to even more subtle methods. They try to pass themselves off as zealous advocates of the principle of non-interference although they have constantly violated and continue to violate the sovereign rights of many countries and peoples. Suddenly they have come out with a hypocritical love of socialism.
29. The participants in the aggression against Viet-Nam speak of peace and of their fidelity to the principles of the United Nations Charter. They try to make out that if blood flows in Viet-Nam it is not their fault. Colonialists disguise themselves under the cloak of liberators and advocates of economic progress in developing countries. They diligently hush up the fact that they are the inspirers and protectors of the presumptuous Israeli aggressors, that it is they who are increasing tension and speeding up the arms race through NATO and other blocs, that many hotbeds of tension and territorial disputes are the work of their hands, and that it is only because of their support that there are still racist and colonialist régimes and that colonialism has been and remains the primary cause of the economic backwardness of most countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
30. Although the representatives of certain Western countries try to replace the solution of important international problems by verbal acrobatics, speaking here about subjects that have no relation to the aims of the United Nations, they have not succeeded, nor will they succeed, in diverting the attention of most Member States of the United Nations from the search for constructive decisions in keeping with the aims and principles of the United Nations and the aspirations of the peoples of the world.
31. Responding to the appeal of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, most delegations, and even those which come under the influence of imperialist propaganda, have concentrated their attention in facilitating the development of international events in favour of the strengthening of peace and co-operation among peoples. In the United Nations the forces of aggression, colonialism and racism are ever more isolated.
32. This can be seen by studying any problem that is disturbing the world today.
33. What has been the attitude of United Nations Members towards the criminal aggression of the United States against the Viet-Namese people? The agreement of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam to have its representatives meet the American side in Paris has been approved by everybody. Almost all speakers have spoken in favour of a successful conclusion to those talks. The overwhelming majority of delegations have shown understanding for the readiness of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam to discuss other matters relating to the Viet-Namese problem after a complete and unconditional cessation by the United States of its bombings and all other acts of war against the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam.
34. It is not by accident that in 1968 the number of countries insistently demanding that the United States put an immediate end to the bombings of the territory of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, as an important and urgent first step towards the political solution of this problem, has increased; and nobody except the accomplices of American aggression in Viet-Nam, and the allies of the United States in aggressive blocs, has supported the demagogical demand of the United States for so-called mutual de-escalation, since this demand is nothing but an attempt to compel the freedom-loving people of Viet-Nam to put an end to its just war of liberation and to submit to the will of the aggressor.
35. We are convinced that by their joint efforts the peoples of the world, standing side by side with heroic people of Viet-Nam, will finally compel the United States of America to put an end to the war of aggression in Viet-Nam for the continuation of which the United States is exclusively to blame. The well-known position of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam and the political programme of the National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam of 1 September 1967, which are fully in keeping with the Geneva Agreements of 1954, open up the possibility of a political settlement of the Viet-Namese problem.
36. With the end of the war in Viet-Nam one of the main obstacles in the way of the constructive efforts of peace-loving States to normalize the international situation and the solution of a number of other problems would be removed.
37. Let us now turn to the question of eliminating the consequences of the Israeli aggression against the neighbouring Arab States. The discussion of this problem is likewise of a positive nature. The key to a settlement of the conflict in the Near East is the withdrawal of the aggressor’s forces from all Arab territories seized by it to the positions they occupied before 5 June 1967 (242 (1967)). Only in that way will it be possible to carry out the various measures for the settlement of the situation in the Near East contained in the unanimously adopted Security Council resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967. Unless that resolution is carried out, it will be impossible to get rid of the dangerous situation in the Near East, impossible to put an end to the ever more frequent violations by Israel of decisions of the Security Council concerning the cease-fire and impossible to implement the decisions of the General Assembly of the United Nations concerning the inadmissibility of a policy of enslavement of the indigenous Arab populations of the conquered territories by the Israeli invaders.
38. The United Arab Republic and other Arab countries have taken up a constructive position for the settlement of the Near East conflict. They have proclaimed their recognition of the Security Council resolution and their readiness to carry it out. Almost all the delegations which have spoken here, with the exception of Israel and those which abet it, are in favour of the speediest possible implementation of this decision of the Security Council, making full use of the possibilities at the disposal of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Ambassador Jarring. Nobody has spoken in support of the so-called nine principles put forward by the representative of Israel, principles which evade the main thing — the question of the recognition by Israel of the Security Council resolution and its willingness to carry it out and to withdraw its troops from the foreign territories which it occupies. Together with other delegations, we emphatically condemn Israel and its protectors for avoiding the obligation to comply with the decision of the Security Council and for its attempts to hold on to the occupied Arab territories.
39. Let us now turn to the problems of Europe. Within the life span of one generation two world wars have started there. The armed forces of two opposing social and economic systems directly face one another in Europe. It is in Europe that the imperialist forces of revenge and militarism supported from outside redouble their activities. But it is also in Europe that the creative forces of socialism are growing ever stronger and developing. We note with satisfaction the fact that the forces of anti-socialism, reaction and imperialism have failed utterly in their attempts to change to their own advantage the status quo in Europe, to encroach upon the socialist achievements of the people of Czechoslovakia and to separate the fraternal States of the socialist community.
40. The leaders of Bonn and those who think like them among the NATO countries will not find in the records of the debate in the General Assembly anything which bears witness to support for the foreign policy of the West German militarists, which is aimed at reconsidering the results of the Second World War and at redrawing the map of Europe. And nobody at this session has supported the encroachments of the revenge-seekers of Bonn upon the German Democratic Republic and West Berlin, their nuclear ambitions, their claims to represent the whole German people, their attempts to divert the punitive sword of justice from the Fascist war criminals. In this connexion it is appropriate to recall that the Third Committee has already examined the question of punishment for war criminals and those who have committed crimes against mankind, and has approved a draft convention (A/7342, paragraph 113) which would do away with any statutory limitations as regards those guilty of these heinous crimes. Only six delegations — those of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of South Africa and Portugal among them — voted against that document. It is not that this is such a large group, but it is extremely characteristic as far as its composition and political leanings are concerned. The convention will be not only an indictment of the Nazis and racists who have committed crimes in the past but also a dire warning to those who commit or plan to commit such crimes.
41. The situation in Europe confirms the rightness of the consistent political policy of the socialist countries, which is aimed at ensuring collective security in Europe and at carrying out the other measures set forth in the Bucharest declaration and the declaration of the meeting of communist parties of Europe in Karlovy Vary — the policy of transforming Europe into a continent of peace, friendship and co-operation on the basis of equal rights between all States and peoples.
42. Of all the tasks facing the United Nations the main one is the maintenance of peace. The peoples of the world have no greater desire than to live, work and build in peace.
43. Since the arms race is the gravest threat to peace, measures must be taken first of all to put an end to it. The arms race and wars have already cost mankind a great deal. In the first half of the twentieth century the arms race and wars cost mankind over 70 million lives and over $4,000,000 million. In the second half of this century the scale and pace of the arms race have increased many times over. Today the United States alone spends more for military purposes than all the countries of the world together were spending in the recent past. If the arms race in Our times is not stopped, it may lead to tremendous losses and consequences for mankind.
44. The arms race must be stopped immediately. The task is difficult but it is a practical one. All that is needed is the willingness and resolve of States, and in the first place the large States, to take concrete measures to put an end to the arms race and to carry out disarmament.
45. The way to solve these problems is shown in the Memorandum (A/7134) of the Government of the USSR on some urgent measures for stopping the arms race and for disarmament. First of all, it is necessary to prohibit the use of nuclear weapons.
46. With the appearance of nuclear weapons the danger of an incredibly destructive war has greatly increased, as has the responsibility of Governments for the fate of many millions of people. In these circumstances an important step towards eliminating the threat of a nuclear war would be an international agreement prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons, and this would also be a significant step towards the complete prohibition of nuclear weapons and their elimination from the arsenals of States.
47. It is also necessary to take measures to put an end to the production of nuclear weapons and to reduce and eliminate existing stockpiles. The delegation of Byelorussia expresses the hope that the readiness of the Soviet Government to undertake immediate negotiations on this question will meet with due support on the part of the other nuclear Powers.
48. The proposals of the Soviet Union concerning the limitation and subsequent reduction of strategic means of delivery of nuclear weapons, the prohibition of flights of bombers with nuclear weapons on board beyond national boundaries and the limitation of zones of navigation of submarines carrying nuclear weapons also deserve full support.
49. The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR considers that it is high time to prohibit underground nuclear weapon tests. The Soviet Union has expressed its readiness to agree immediately to the prohibition of underground nuclear tests on the basis of the use of national means of detection for control over that ban. This position of the Soviet Union is supported by many States. It is now up to the Western Powers, which must finally move towards a solution of this problem.
50. In addition to nuclear weapons, there are other kinds of weapon which are extremely dangerous for mankind — chemical and bacteriological weapons. Over forty years ago the Geneva Protocol of 1925 prohibiting the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons was concluded, and this played a very important role during the Second World War. Unfortunately to this day there are still States which have not signed that Protocol.
51. On the initiative of Hungary the General Assembly, at the twenty-first session, adopted a resolution (2162 (XXI)) calling for strict observance by all States of the principles and objectives of the Geneva Protocol. In that resolution the General Assembly condemned all actions contrary to those objectives and called on all States to adhere to the Geneva Protocol. Indignation is aroused by the fact that the United States, to which that resolution applied, continues to disregard the clearly expressed desire of the States Members of the United Nations and the rules of contemporary international law. We fully support the proposal made by the Soviet Union (1679th Session, paragraph 121) that the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament examine immediately ways and means of ensuring compliance by all States with the Geneva Protocol prohibiting the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons. The consideration of this question is most timely and cannot be replaced by the proposals of some Western countries for a revision of the Geneva Protocol under the pretext of modernizing it, especially since a similar proposal was already considered at the twenty-second session and met with no support.
52. In the Memorandum of the Soviet Government other important measures are dealt with, such as the need to liquidate military bases on foreign soil, to foster the creation of denuclearized zones, measures for regional disarmament, and negotiations on the question of the use of the sea-bed beyond existing territorial waters for peaceful purposes only.
53. In supporting these concrete, clear-cut and practical proposals we are glad to note that in the general debate they have attracted considerable attention. Almost ail delegations referred to the initiative of the USSR and expressed their own views which, in the main, concurred with the ideas in the Memorandum; this document, which takes due account of the existing situation and the results already achieved, and, in particular, the results of the resumed twenty-second session, indicates the main practical ways of stopping the arms race, and disarmament measures.
54. The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR will state in detail its position in regard to specific disarmament questions when they are considered in the First Committee. We declare right now, however, that, together with all peace-loving States, we shall continue our struggle for the cessation of the arms race, for the implementation of partial measures in the field of disarmament and, finally, for general and complete disarmament. This is the main task of all peace-loving States.
55. No far-fetched proposals, such as the one put forward in the general debate by the representative of one of the Western countries for an account of the traffic in arms, will divert us from this road. Who needs that when it is well known that the United States is the greatest supplier of weapons in the world? In the past six years alone the United States has sold to NATO countries, including the country which initiated the aforesaid proposal, arms and military equipment in the amount of $10,140 million. That proposal is yet another clumsy attempt to create the impression that the United Nations is dealing with the problem of disarmament, and thus to divert the General Assembly from the problems confronting it concerning disarmament and the strengthening of peace.
56. In these days the Byelorussian people is preparing to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Byelorussian SSR and the Communist Party of Byelorussia.
57. The Byelorussian Soviet Republic was founded on 1 January 1919, as a result of the Great October Socialist Revolution, in the difficult years of foreign intervention and civil war. In the past half century our people, which is successfully building a communist society, has carried out great historic transformations. It has made vast progress in the fields of economy, science and culture, in raising the standard of living of the population. All our successes and achievements are the results of implementation by the Communist Party of the wise national policy of Lenin, a policy of mutual assistance and co-operation of the great fraternal family of all the peoples of the Soviet Union.
58. It is characteristic that, during the years of Soviet power, our Republic proved that it was possible to overcome economic backwardness within the lifetime of one generation, or even less. Despite the fact that out of fifty years, eight were spent in wars forced upon us by the imperialists and in rebuilding our national economy destroyed by the war, we have been able to put an end once and for all to poverty and backwardness, to eliminate illiteracy, to create a wide network of special, secondary and higher educational establishments, to develop industry, to transform and strengthen agriculture, and to achieve great success in the fields of culture, science and technology.
59. The constructive labour of the Byelorussian people, as a result of which industrial production in 1940 was 8.1 times higher than before the Revolution, was interrupted by the Fascist invasion during the Second World War. In that war one in four of the inhabitants of the Republic was killed. The Fascist aggressors destroyed and burned down almost all of our cities, towns and villages. The level of industrial production in December 1944 amounted to only 10 per cent of the level of December 1940. The total direct destruction for which the Hitlerite invaders were responsible was equal to thirty-five budgets of the Republic in the last pre-war year.
60. But in 1950, only five years after the victorious end of the war, the industry of Byelorussia exceeded the pre-war level by 15 per cent. In 1967 we were already nine times above the pre-war level; and now in five days alone we produce as much in the field of industry as was produced by Byelorussia before the Revolution in a whole year.
61. The constant rate of growth in our productivity is characteristic of the economy of the Byelorussian SSR in all the stages of socialist development. The average increase in production in the last seventeen years amounted to about 13 per cent per year. Per capita output of many types of industrial products in our Republic is higher than in many highly developed capitalist countries. In the last year, eighty-seven countries of the world bought our manufactured goods; among them automobiles, tractors, machine tools, electronic computers, agricultural and road-building equipment, watches and various other kinds of equipment.
62. In the past fifty years we have radically changed the conditions of life of the people. We have eliminated the exploitation of man by man, and everyone has guaranteed work, with constant increase in actual wages, free medical services, free educational and social services and free insurance.
63. The successes achieved by the Byelorussian SSR were made possible by the socialist system of our economy, thanks to the scientific determination of the main objectives and of the direction of development. The deep and all-round analysis and account of our experience could certainly facilitate the preparation of effective programmes for overcoming economic backwardness in the developing countries. Our whole experience bears witness to the possibility of increasing industrial production along socialist lines in practically thirty years by 73 times, and now there are much greater scientific and technological opportunities for development.
64. We cannot but be alarmed by the existing calculations according to which the countries of Africa, at the present pace of their development, would require a hundred years to double their annual national per capita income, and three centuries to reach the contemporary level of development of European States.
65. It is quite obvious that everything has to be done in order to disprove such calculations and forecasts, so that the imperialists, colonialists and neo-colonialists will not be able to make use of the economic backwardness of the developing countries as a source of exorbitant profits and ever-increasing enrichment by exploiting the natural wealth and resources of these countries. For that purpose, it is necessary to liquidate colonialism and neo-colonialism in all their forms and manifestations and put an end to the discriminatory system of international division of labour imposed upon the developing countries by the imperialists.
66. In their aspiration to economic development and social progress the young independent countries are not alone in their struggle against the imperialist world with its system of exploitation and pillage of countries and peoples, with its practice of inequitable exchange and one-sided agreements.
67. The developing countries can count on the support of all progressive forces of peace.
68. The Byelorussian people take an active part in the effort to develop the national economy of the young and independent countries. We also make voluntary contributions to the United Nations Development Programme. Unfortunately, the resources of that Programme are used in a very unsatisfactory manner by its directors.
69. We have a large number of foreign students, among them many citizens of developing countries. We organize seminars and study tours for specialists of the young States and this form of assistance is currently expanding. In 1964 in Minsk we had an interregional seminar of the United Nations on social aspects of industrialization. In 1968 we have already had three similar events, one of them being the interregional seminar of the United Nations on the siting of industrial enterprises and on regional development.
70. In rendering disinterested assistance to the development of the national economy of new and independent States, we cannot of course base our approach to this problem on the premise that cur socialist State must give assistance equal to that given by those who are responsible for the present state of the economy of the developing countries and for the slow pace of their development, by those who for centuries pillaged and continue to pillage the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America but do not return the wealth that has been taken away from them.
71. In Asia, Africa and Latin America, the struggle of the peoples for social, political and economic liberation is constantly increasing. The Declaration adopted in 1960, on the initiative of the Soviet Union, on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and. Peoples (Resolution 1514(XV)) gave an additional stimulus to the national liberation movements which have brought freedom and independence to many peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Since then twenty-six new sovereign States have appeared on the map of the world.
72. However in various parts of the world there are still bastions of colonialism. The peoples of Namibia, Southern Rhodesia, Angola, Mozambique, so-called Portuguese Guinea, Oman and other colonies continue to live in conditions of alien domination and enslavement.
73. The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples has still not been implemented fully because of the position taken up by the colonial Powers — Great Britain, the United States, Portugal, the Republic of South Africa, Australia and others — which are unwilling to implement the Declaration with respect to the remaining colonies.
74. With the direct support and protection of those States and the Federal Republic of Germany a consolidation of the most reactionary forces of colonialism and racism is taking place in the southern part of the African continent. There has been created a criminal triple alliance of South Africa and Southern Rhodesian racists and Portuguese colonialists, to whom the imperialists have assigned the main role in the struggle against the national liberation movement in Africa.
75. The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples must be implemented immediately and unconditionally in respect of all colonial peoples and territories. It is necessary resolutely to condemn the nefarious activities of the international monopolies in the colonies and to work out the necessary measures to put an end to these activities. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development must be required to abrogate the loans and credits granted by it to Portugal and the Republic of South Africa since these are used for continuing the exploitation of the colonial peoples and the repression of the national liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies and Namibia and for the oppression of the African population in South Africa. We must resolutely condemn the use of military bases by the colonial Powers against the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America and for acts of aggression against other countries and demand that the colonialists implement the decisions of the United Nations concerning the liquidation of these bases.
76. We condemn the attempts of the British colonialists to come to an agreement behind the back of the people of Zimbabwe with the leaders of a small group of rabid racists in Southern Rhodesia who have created an illegal and criminal racist régime and have deprived the 4 million indigenous inhabitants of Zimbabwe of their most elementary rights.
77. Our delegation considers it necessary that the United Nations should resolutely condemn and pronounce itself in favour of prohibition of the use of foreign mercenaries in colonial wars. The mercenaries of the colonialists commit criminal acts against enslaved peoples, that is, they are criminals. The recruitment training and use of mercenaries must be prohibited by law and be liable to punishment. It is undeniable that those who are guilty of using the mercenaries must be made fully responsible for payment of compensation for damages resulting from the use of these mercenaries against the peoples fighting for their liberation from colonialism and its consequences.
78. Ever since its creation my country has always been on the side of peoples fighting against any form of colonial oppression and for freedom and independence. Our support for national liberation movements and our struggle in the United Nations since its very inception for the liquidation of colonialism and its consequences has contributed to the birth of new and independent States which have now become Members of the United Nations. That is why we reject as completely unfounded and far-fetched the allegation of one speaker here that the Soviet Union and other socialist countries are to blame for the fact that there are still colonial régimes in various countries. It is high time to understand that without the Great October Socialist Revolution, which started the process of liberation of peoples, without the Soviet Union and the victims which it has offered on the altar of the freedom of peoples, and without our support for the national liberation movements, that speaker would not have been able to come to this exalted rostrum of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
79. The Byelorussian SSR has always supported and will always support United Nations decisions designed to put an end to the shameful colonial system and will give its full support to the legitimate struggle of the peoples in colonial Territories for their freedom and independence.
80. The present session of the General Assembly faces many important problems to which we have already drawn attention. The time has also come to achieve the full implementation of the principle of universality of our Organization. It is indispensable for the United Nations to admit the two German States — the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany — and to expel from the United Nations the men of Chiang Kai-shek and to restore the lawful rights of the Chinese People’s Republic. It is also high time to put an end to the improper practice of bringing before the General Assembly such questions as the report of the so-called United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea, a Commission which we and some other countries propose to abolish. We have also asked that attention be concentrated on the question of the withdrawal of United States and all other foreign troops occupying South Korea under the flag of the United Nations. Moreover, this question should be debated and settled with the participation of representatives of the Korean People’s Democratic Republic.
81. The Byelorussian SSR is one of the founding Members of the United Nations. Our Republic has taken an active part in working out the Charter of the United Nations and in carrying out its high principles and objectives. Guided in its activities by the Leninist principles of the peace and freedom of peoples, the delegation of the Byelorussian SSR in the sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations and other international organizations has bent all its efforts towards maintaining and strengthening peace, towards solving the problem of general and complete disarmament, towards liquidating the shameful colonialist system, and towards creating favourable conditions for the social and economic progress of the peoples of the world.