Mr. President, before presenting to this Assembly the views of the Federal Republic of Cameroon on the principal items on the agenda of the seventeenth session, permit me to extend to you, on behalf of my Government and my delegation, our sincere congratulations on your election to the office you now hold. By your rare personal qualities and the experience you have acquired in the course of your long career as diplomat and statesman, you were eminently worthy of election to your office. Cameroon, which maintains excellent relations with your country, rejoices at the honour which has thus been done, through you, to Pakistan.
114. I should also like to take this opportunity to pay a sincere tribute to your distinguished predecessor, Mr. Mongi Slim, whose authority, dignity and masterly conduct of affairs commanded our respect.
115. We wish also to express to the Acting Secretary-General our admiration and our confidence which he has won by the wisdom with which he has discharged his very heavy responsibilities since his appointment.
116. Lastly, my Government and delegation are happy to extend their warm congratulations to the new States which have been admitted to membership to the United Nations at the present session [1122nd meeting]. To these sister countries, Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, I should like to convey a fraternal greeting from the Cameroonian people.
117. At this moment when the Members of the great international family have met together once again to debate the important matters at issue between them, my delegation wishes solemnly to reaffirm its unswerving attachment to the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter and its unshakable faith in the future of our Organization. The United Nations represents mankind's most solid opportunity.
118. There is a danger that our planet might be plunged into dreadful chaos which we could not survive if by an unfortunate combination of circumstances our Organization should fail to attain the noble ideals it has set itself. This prospect of ultimate doom and the responsibility we each of us bear in the necessary task of building a humane and better world make it incumbent upon us to carry out the essential reforms of which the United Nations stands in need.
119. In order to restore to the Organization the effectiveness and the moral authority of which there is a tendency in some quarters to deprive it, a twofold reform — both structural and functional — must be carried out. There can be no doubt that the world of the ‘60’s is very different from the world of 1945. What was good at that time is not necessarily good today. The facts of the situation have changed completely. The forces confronting each other in the various parts of the world are substantially different. Certain lines of cleavage have brought about various regroupings of countries on the basis of common anxieties and interests. For this reason the balance which was sought after in the principal organs of the United Nations seventeen years ago must now be conceived anew, in the light of the new facts. We must therefore undertake a task of far-reaching structural reform adapted to the present international situation.
120. The Security Council must be reorganized to reflect the accession to international responsibility of many countries which were formerly dependent and which are now Members of the United Nations. The number of non-permanent members must therefore be increased and the seats judiciously distributed in such a way as to give all States the possibility of being elected to one of them. It is illogical to maintain the present geographical distribution which is no longer equitable and which is often based on fiction and not on the realities of international life.
121. The special position of the under-developed countries also makes it desirable to reform the Economic and Social Council. The Council should be enlarged, in order to associate the new States more closely in the effort to find solutions which can help to promote higher standards of living, full employment and conditions of economic and social progress and development. There can be no doubt that the attainment of these goals will help to achieve the conditions of well-being necessary to ensure peaceful and friendly relations among nations.
122. The foregoing remarks concern structural changes only; to survive, however, the United Nations is in need of functional reform also. We must make it possible for the Organization to attain the objectives it has chosen and to carry out successfully the ever-increasing number of tasks it is assuming. This depends first and foremost on each one of us. No text will be sufficient by itself for the purpose. There must be a collective will to co-operate applied in the principal organs of the United Nations, which must henceforward be given rational means of functioning.
123. Working methods and procedures within the Organization should be recast with a view to greater efficiency. At the time of the signing of the Charter, the United Nations had fifty-one Members; today there are 108 and it can be anticipated that with the acceleration of the process of decolonization new Members will be admitted.
124. It has become a matter of urgency to adapt the general debate in the plenary meetings to the number of delegations if the length of our sessions is to be kept within reasonable limits, though without detriment to the work of the Committees; for neither the finances nor the public services of States are served by the frequent journeys of their leaders and officials obliged to spend long periods abroad. It may well be, moreover, that the financial authorities of the United Nations share this concern.
125. The Charter defines the functions of the Secretary-General in precise terms. However great the esteem in which we may hold a man and whatever merit we may find in him, we must refer to the stipulations of the Charter. While, admittedly, it is desirable that the Secretary-General should be given wider powers for the conduct of certain operations, he cannot personify the whole Organization and substitute himself for it, as he has been seen to do in certain cases. It is abnormal, too, that action should sometimes be taken without prior consultation with the General Assembly.
126. The recruitment of staff must be in accordance with the provisions of Article 101 of the Charter and carried out "on as wide a geographical basis as possible". Henceforward, the smaller countries will have competent men, and it is time that these men should be given opportunities at all levels of the Secretariat.
127. Of all the problems confronting the Organization, its present financial crisis is undoubtedly the most serious. There are various reasons for this crisis, most prominent among which is the expenditure incurred in connexion with the United Nations Emergency Force in the Congo. Although certain States have shown little eagerness to discharge their additional financial obligations, the recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice [A/5161] should induce them to reconsider their position on a matter of such cardinal importance, on which the survival of our Organization may perhaps depend. We are not at all certain, moreover, that a refusal to abide by the Court's opinions will be likely to enhance the prestige and authority of the United Nations.
128. Cameroon, for its part, despite the modesty of its means, has paid its assessments in full and earnestly hopes that all Members will follow Its example. Moreover, my country has decided to subscribe to the bond issue launched by the Secretary-General with a view to restoring the Organization's finances.
129. In connexion with the United Nations emergency forces, we must not forget the difficult problems that they present per se. Should the United Nations have its own army, or should it not? Opinions are divided on the matter. Recent experience has shown that the contingents furnished by certain Powers were seldom completely free from the influence of the General Staffs or the political authorities of their respective countries.
130. Was not this circumstance the source of certain difficulties which we all recall, both in the conduct of operations and in regard to the internal affairs of the countries receiving assistance? What is certain is that it did anything but facilitate the Secretary-General's task.
131. However, these disadvantages cannot diminish the obligation of the United Nations to safeguard peace and especially to guarantee the security and territorial integrity of Member States exposed to greed and aggression. This logically leads us to advocate the constitution of an independent emergency force, though from our experience of the present crisis we should display the greatest caution in our approach to the financial implications of this proposal.
132. Since I am speaking of peace, I cannot fail to mention the dramatic question of disarmament. It is platitudinous to state that the arms race is the greatest conceivable threat to mankind. Why should the great nuclear Powers not follow the well-known formula of replacing the arms race with a race for peace? The money spent on a single nuclear test would clearly be amply sufficient to finance the budget of more than one small State. We remain firmly convinced that mankind would benefit if scientific and technical advances were used for peaceful purposes. The peoples of the world generally, and the Cameroonian people in particular, have confidence in the great Powers. They expect that, conscious of their great responsibilities in international affairs, those Powers will shortly reach an agreement on general, complete and controlled disarmament, to be preceded by the suspension of nuclear and thermo-nuclear tests.
133. That is why my country welcomes the patient efforts which have kept the talks going between the nuclear Powers, just as it is happy to see that the world has understood that the solution of a problem of such gravity, on which the survival of the human race depends, can no longer be the monopoly of a small number of States, even if they are demographically, economically or militarily the strongest. It is gratifying therefore that the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament which met this year at Geneva on the initiative of this august Assembly included nations which are not at all likely in the future to manufacture weapons of mass destruction and which, moreover, do not endorse the argument that international peace and security must be attained by stockpiling bombs.
134. It would be infinitely more encouraging for mankind if it could detect increasing evidence of goodwill on the part of the great Powers which would lead us to hope that this most terrible nightmare of our existence will soon be ended.
135. The possibilities of man's creative genius are unimaginable. May his conquests ever be turned away from the temptation to bring mankind's adventure on this earth to a premature end, and may they rather help to bring all men closer together by making broad co-operation possible in all fields.
136. Realism therefore demands that the principal nuclear Powers, with the effective co-operation of all Members of the United Nations, great and small, which love peace and freedom, should reach agreements designed:
137. First, to put an immediate end to nuclear tests underground, in the air and in outer space;
138. Secondly, to achieve general, complete and controlled disarmament, capable of guaranteeing to all men the peace and security they require.
139. Concerned by this situation, Mr. Ahmadou Ahidjo, President of the Federal Republic of Cameroon, during his recent visit to the United States, addressed the Overseas Press Club in New York on 15 March 1962 in the following terms; "We are living in a world which is hard yet full of hope, a world which is making constant, breathtaking progress, in which, defying all rational expectations, the human mind is daily pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. But it is also a world beset by acute anxiety, a world of incomprehension where ambition is the only consideration. Already the spectre of war, which must inevitably be nuclear war, looms on the horizon, presaging the end of civilization. In these circumstances, any contribution, however small, to the settlement of international problems, represents a useful step towards the strengthening of peace. Great and small Powers alike have a historic role to play in preserving mankind from catastrophe. The peoples yearning for peace still hope that those who possess means of mass destruction will be able by means of negotiation to achieve general and controlled disarmament. This we shall never cease to repeat: the balance of terror which has existed for fifteen years and which each day threatens to be destroyed, can last no longer."
140. May these Words of a great champion of peace be heeded!
141. Nevertheless, the peace of the world would still continue to be disturbed even if man were to succeed in avoiding destruction by nuclear and thermonuclear weapons. Many evils still stain our history and we must be bold and persistent in denouncing them. It is comforting, however, to note that they are diminishing, slowly perhaps but irreversibly.
142. The problems of decolonization and racial discrimination, for example, confront us at each session, for of ail the calamities which afflict mankind the domination of man by man remains the greatest. The domination of one race by another is the most ignoble, the most irrational, the most shameful. That is why the Federal Republic of Cameroon will never consider any sacrifice too great or too costly if its result will be to rescue a people from foreign domination. Unfortunately, this conviction is not shared by all. Voices still are heard, even among the Members of our Organization, venturing to endorse practices which are a disgrace to mankind.
143. It is a matter of great satisfaction to the freedom-loving peoples whenever a nation attains independence and international sovereignty. It is also an opportunity to pay a glowing tribute to the United Nations which has enshrined among its fundamental principles the right of self-determination of peoples and the natural, inalienable and indefeasible right of self-determination and independence. These are indeed essential principles, for more than any others they help to place the seal of nobility on the work of our Organization.
144. How can we agree that the United Nations should continue to include among its Members countries which trample upon its most sacred principles? How long will it be willing to tolerate in its ranks States which persistently mock its authority by refusing to apply its noblest resolutions? The time has come to state without equivocation that there is no room for either Portugal or South Africa in this Assembly.
145. Africa has shouldered its responsibilities in the struggle for the liberation of peoples, The Africans will never stop fighting until the last vestige of colonialism has disappeared completely from their continent. This warning is addressed to those colonial Powers which are desperately striving to hold on to privileges belonging to a bygone era and are thwarting the aspirations of the African for freedom by continuing to impose backward regimes on a part of our continent. Their leaders pay heed neither to the exhortations of men of good will, nor to the repeated appeals of the United Nations, nor to the turning wheel of history. It must be stated vehemently that colonialism is dead. Those who do not understand this will learn it to their cost. It is not possible for the African countries, any more than the United Nations itself, to acquiesce in vast African territories like Angola, Mozambique, Gambia or the Spanish possessions being declared, in the name of a doubtful legality, an integral part of Portugal or Spain. If the facts corresponded to such legalistic quibbles, why should thousands of Angolan patriots sacrifice their lives each day in order to win the right to be free?
146. From this rostrum my delegation again expresses its full and active sympathy to its Angolan brothers fighting for their independence. The independent States of Africa are resolved to give these patriots all the moral and material support they need to free themselves from colonialist oppression.
147. South Africa, too, would do well to reconsider its position. Nothing can justify the policy of apartheid which is practised in that country by a white minority against an immense majority of non-Whites and which is an affront to the noble ideals of our Organization. It is not possible to invoke the Charter which regulates our conduct and at the same time to put into practice this famous theory of separate development of which we have heard. Nowhere in the Charter does it say that men, if they are of different race, must be separated in order to live in peace in the same country.
148. With regard to the policy practised in South West Africa, my delegation is surprised that the Government of Pretoria should state that it holds a League of Nations Mandate for the administration of South West Africa and should argue that it is not accountable to the United Nations, when everyone agrees that the latter took over the rights and duties of the former League of Nations. My delegation calls on the United Nations to proclaim without further ado the determination of the mandate exercised over South West Africa by a Government which daily makes a mockery of the rights of the human person and of the principles of the United Nations Charter. Yet we know that there will be some who will be unable to resist the temptation to try to justify what cannot be justified.
149. South Africa should know that henceforth Africans will not be able to remain mere spectators of a drama in which it is the tragic heroine. We call on all Members of the United Nations to give our South African brothers the moral and material support they need in their unequal struggle to regain their human dignity.
150. No legal stratagems can relieve a metropolitan country of the compelling obligation to free its colonies. Although we acknowledge the merits of the decolonization policy practised by the United Kingdom, we cannot accept the argument that in Nyasaland and the Rhodesias, where white minorities have been able to set up certain forms of government on a racial basis and with the help of constitutions conferred upon them, there is no further call for the Africans to demand their independence. Our ties of friendship with the United Kingdom Government permit us to hope that it will find a solution for this problem consistent with its humanistic and liberal traditions.
151. Turning now to a different subject, we continue to favour negotiations looking to the peaceful settlement of disputes between States. My delegation therefore is most happy at the ending of the crisis between Indonesia and the Netherlands. It has taken note, with feelings that can well be imagined, of the agreement concluded between the two parties and of the Secretary-General's proposals for its ratification [see A/5170, annex]. It ventures, however, to express its regret that the party principally concerned could not have been associated with the agreement. There can be no question that it would have accorded better with the provisions of the Charter if the peoples of West Irian had been consulted, before the transitional period, on the tie to Indonesia. Admittedly, a plebiscite is to be held later on. But can we be certain now that the principle of self-determination which is being applied in this case to the Papuan people will not by then have been rendered completely meaningless? I think that what I have said will explain the reasons for our abstention. It remains only for my delegation to express the hope that the outcome of the procedure now set in motion will be a successful one.
152. My Government has recognized the independent State of Algeria. It is most happy that the two parties have been able, after protracted negotiations, to proclaim the independence and sovereignty of the Algerian people, thus ringing down the curtain on a tragedy that had become the tragedy of all Africa. We greet once again our Algerian brothers and their Government and hope that the new, independent and sovereign Algeria will soon be able to take its rightful place in our Organization.
153. Another question that has been mentioned among those so called threats to the peace is that of the People's Republic of China. But is this in fact really a problem?
154. The admission of the People's Republic of China has often been requested and the matter has been presented in a great variety of forms. All independent States should, of course, be admitted to membership in the United Nations and presumably a solution to this problem will one day be found, for after all it is difficult to ignore the 650 million human beings who inhabit that country and stubbornly to deny them the right to take part in the life of a world Organization such as ours. But it is also difficult to agree to the admission of a State which does not seem willing to conform to the principles of the Charter. That is why we claim that the case of China is not really a problem, for China's admission to this Organization rests entirely in its own hands. To be a Member of the United Nations a State must fulfil certain conditions, the chief of which is that it must be a peaceful State practising a policy of peace towards the other Members of the United Nations and towards the rest of the world. As everyone knows, however, the regime in power in mainland China has persistently engaged in subversive activities not only in Asia but in Africa also. It has defied the United Nations, made war upon it and been condemned by it as an aggressor in Korea.
155. Against my own country, the People's Republic of China has long pursued a policy of aggression. We know and have proof that its Government has openly trained and armed in its territory Cameroonian terrorists who sought to overthrow the democratically established régime. Although it recognizes the need to enlist the efforts of all men in the search for solutions to the gravest problems of our day, my delegation cannot fail to voice its condemnation of such a wholly unjustifiable attitude. It hopes that the Peking Government will one day present a case to the United Nations that will justify its admission to membership, and will thus help the Organization rapidly to achieve universality. It rests with the People's Republic of China to demonstrate international good will and co-operation on the basis of respect for the fundamental principles of the Charter and so earn the right to belong to our Organization.
156. My delegation therefore declares its opposition to the admission of the People's Republic of China and to any proposal for the exclusion from the United Nations of the delegation now representing the Republic of China, a country which was a signatory of the Charter and which has been recognized by the great majority of the Members of this Assembly.
157. Another problem represents a threat to world peace — the problem of Berlin. There is general agreement that the Germany of today is not the Germany of pre-war days and that it cannot be made to bear for ever the burden of the victory over Hitlerian madness. My country, which long suffered from the division of its territory and the arbitrary separation of its peoples, earnestly hopes that through peaceful negotiations the Powers concerned will find common ground leading to the reunification of the two Germanies. Berlin and its now famous wall cannot constitute the crux of the German problem. The Powers concerned must acknowledge the German people's indefeasible right of self-determination; Germany must be given the opportunity freely to decide its own destiny. We should, however, be failing in our duty if we did not make our approach in our debates an essentially human one. For what is it, in the final analysis, that we are trying to do?
158. We are trying to ensure man's development, freedom, tranquillity and survival. We are trying to harmonize, so far as possible, the levels of living of the peoples of the five continents. We are trying, in short, to create an era of prosperity, of physical and spiritual well-being, when man will no longer prey on man. Two-thirds of mankind, however, are living in deprivation, hunger, poverty and illiteracy. They must be helped to free themselves from this situation and to bring their living conditions more closely into line with those in the industrialized countries. The vast gulf existing between the various levels of living is a threat to international peace and security. Until such time as the economic and social disparities have been eliminated, the attempt to bring the different families of the human race closer together will remain but a dream.
159. No one, of course, can take the place of the non-aligned countries in their fight against poverty. They know this and, above all, they know that Heaven will help them only if they help themselves. Nevertheless, it must be recognized that, however great their desire to put poverty behind them and the means they themselves mobilize for the purpose, their efforts will be successful only in so far as they receive substantial and disinterested foreign aid. The best framework for international technical cooperation is the United Nations itself and it is appropriate here to pay a sincere tribute to the Organization's unceasing efforts in this field.
160. The United Nations Technical Assistance Programme, the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance for economic development and, more recently, the decision to establish the United Nations Development Decade are all activities worthy of consideration.
161. It should be added, however, that despite all this good will and despite the increasingly marked desire for the international technical co-operation that is essential, a long and rocky road still lies ahead. The obstacles can be surmounted only to the extent that all of us here in this Assembly sincerely wish to achieve positive results and refrain from loud declarations made only for propaganda purposes. For we agree with the Secretary-General that: .. the present division of the world into rich and poor countries is, in my opinion, much more real and much more serious, and ultimately much more explosive, that the division of the world on ideological grounds" [A/520l/Add.1, page 3].
162. Those who have agreed to help us should know this; we shall never espouse ideological divisions which have nothing to do with us. Ideological quarrels are a luxury that my country cannot afford.
163. This is especially important as the multilateral assistance afforded to the newly independent countries through the United Nations is far from sufficient. It needs to be backed up by bilateral and regional technical co-operation. The Federal Republic of Cameroon, for its part, seeks all forms of cooperation which respect its sovereignty and are likely to help it in its struggle against under-development. Its foreign policy is based on mutual respect and the sovereign equality of States.
164. With the same faith that it reposes in the United Nations, the Federal Republic of Cameroon is a member of the Economic Commission for Africa. It is also a member of the Association of African and Malagasy Economic Co-operation and Development, which represents an unprecedented experiment on the African continent.
165. Our desire to organize a vast market in which our various economies can be integrated harmoniously is not confined to the shores of Africa. We have, for example, accepted other forms of economic association and integration which embrace countries outside our continent. We have done so advisedly, for it is our firm belief that world economic integration, on which all Members of the United Nations are agreed, cannot be achieved overnight and must in any circumstances be preceded by Integration on a regional basis.
166. In pursuing all these efforts we are convinced that we are acting not only consistently with the fundamental principles of the Charter but also on the right lines to bring the peoples of the world closer together — an objective which will be no more than a mirage and a demagogic phrase so long as the vast gulf of which we are all aware continues to exist between abundance and poverty.
167. I should not like to conclude my consideration of this important matter without saying one thing more. The economy of most of the under-developed countries is based on the production of a number of raw materials from the sale of which they obtain the capital and the capital goods that they need. The industrialized nations are their chief customers. These nations could help them effectively by trying to stabilize the prices of the principal raw materials. It is not right that these prices should continue to be subject to such fluctuations which make any economic programming and any serious development planning impossible.
168. On the human side, it is not right either that millions of people in the non-aligned countries should continue to work harder for a smaller return because of the sharp drop in the prices of the raw materials which their countries produce.
169. In this necessarily brief statement I have not been able to say everything that has to be said on this important problem of the economic and social development of the newly independent countries. My delegation, however, hopes to be able to do so at the appropriate time. It will study closely all proposals that are made at this session with regard to international economic co-operation.
170. I have now given the General Assembly the views of the delegation of Cameroon on the main items on the agenda.
171. Before concluding, I should like to digress very briefly on a problem which I may be forgiven for considering important — the problem of African unity. It is impossible for anyone thinking about the future of Africa and Madagascar not to regard their unity as a fundamental need. Moreover, we believe that no one on our continent will venture to assert the contrary. However, while there is agreement on the goal to be attained, there is none with regard to the means to be employed or to the timetable which is to lead to African-Malagasy union.
172. Some have dreamed and continue to dream of unity around a particular man or country. We think that those who do are not truly working in the interests of Africa and Madagascar. In any case, this view does not have the support of the Federal Republic of Cameroon which continues to believe that the unity of our continent must reflect the freely determined will of all. Cameroon advocates unity by association, by successive merging of groups — unity by concentric circles of solidarity, as opposed to unity by absorption. We are happy to see that history seems to be proving us right. Africa is still divided into two groups which are now agreed on the need to unite. The contacts that are being made at this very moment between the Heads of Government of the Monrovia and Casablanca groups permit us to hope that there will be a meeting of all the leaders of independent Africa in the near future. Even before these spectacular policy decisions, however, Cameroon had already begun to move towards unity by establishing, together with eleven other sister States, the African and Malagasy Union, the serious intentions and solid structure of which have been recognized by all observers.
173. The African and Malagasy Union is beginning to play a prominent role in Africa and in the world at large. It has been constantly developing. The General Secretariat of the African and Malagasy Union, the African and Malagasy Economic Cooperation Organization, the African and Malagasy Postal and Telecommunications Union, the Transport Committee, Air Africa and the African and Malagasy Defence Union represent so many irreversible steps forward taken by an organization whose ambition it is to give Africa and Madagascar effective instruments of co-operation essential to achieve future progress. Here, too, the African and Malagasy Union has just established a group which meets automatically whenever an important problem arises. By its homogeneity the group is beginning to give striking proof of the will to co-operate of its various members. The setting up of a permanent secretariat of the African and Malagasy Union in the United Nations is a further proof of the Union's importance. The Union, however, considers itself an integral part of the larger Monrovia group of twenty-one African and Malagasy States, of which the Charter was adopted in principle at Lagos in January 1962. I am happy to be able to announce that a Monrovia group has been established in the United Nations. I hasten to add that it will remain an integral part of the African-Asian group, thus confirming our theory of unity through concentric circles of solidarity.
174. All who believe in the unity of peoples will certainly rejoice to see Africa uniting at last, for, by reason of its population, the vastness of its territory and its almost unimaginable resources, our continent, back on the right road and united, must play its proper part in world affairs and so fulfil the hopes it has aroused.
175. We are living in a world of terror, a world where the sciences have made tremendous progress, a world where the fate of mankind hangs by a thread. It is also a world of promise, where these same scientific advances can make man happy by raising his level of living, by increasing his life expectancy, by abolishing want — in other words, by enabling the developing countries to come closer to the advanced countries.
176. Mankind faces too many threats in the world today for these matters not to weigh on us. The secrets that man has wrested from nature by his genius, instead of helping to promote his well-being and full development, threaten to destroy civilization and mankind as a whole.
177. We Africans want peace in order to develop; our continent must be a peaceful continent and must not be turned into a cold-war proving ground. We want, in tranquillity and freedom, to evaluate the practical achievements of the two opposing systems and to draw our own conclusions from their effectiveness and moral value.
178. To achieve a better functioning of the United Nations, to rationalize its machinery, to distribute more fairly the responsibilities of its Members, who must all be regarded as equal partners, to restore authority to the decisions of the United Nations and the specialized agencies, to disarm, to decolonize, to co-operate, to seek all possible forms of negotiation for the peaceful settlement of international disputes — these are exalting tasks worthy of our Organization.