The members of my delegation and I deem it an honour and a privilege
to have the opportunity of participating in the thirty seventh
session of the General Assembly. We bring representatives the warm
greetings of the Government and the people of Bangladesh. On behalf
of the Bangladesh delegation and on my own behalf, I congratulate Mr.
Hollai on his unanimous election as President of the thirty seventh
session of the General Assembly. We are confident that his qualities
of leadership and wealth of experience will be of immense value to
the Assembly in accomplishing its task. We offer him our co operation
and support in fulfilling his heavy responsibility during the days
ahead. My delegation would like to take this opportunity to
congratulate his predecessor, Mr. Kittani of Iraq, on his determined
and energetic leadership not only during the thirty sixth session of
the General Assembly but also during the second special session
devoted to disarmament and the emergency special session on the
question of Palestine. His patience and wisdom have been greatly
appreciated by all of us. My delegation would also like to pay a
tribute to the new Secretary General, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar,
who, within the short period since the assumption of his most
difficult responsibilities, has earned our trust and confidence for
his absolute dedication and impartiality. The Government of
Bangladesh congratulates him on his unremitting efforts and ceaseless
endeavours in promoting the purposes and principles of the Charter.
We assure him of our fullest support for all his efforts aimed in
this direction. Bangladesh deeply mourns the passing of His Majesty
King Khaled of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In him the entire world
has lost an outstanding personality dedicated to the cause of peace
and justice. Since its independence as a sovereign nation, Bangladesh
has made consistent efforts to work for the greater interest of the
international community. The foreign policy of Bangladesh is based on
total adherence to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the
United Nations. We see this world body as a unique instrument for
promoting global peace and development based on justice and equity.
We greatly appreciate the candor with which the Secretary General in
his report has brought to our notice the shortcomings of the
Organization. We in Bangladesh will support the Secretary General in
all his efforts to make the United Nations an effective organization
for maintaining world peace and security. Bangladesh has chosen non
alignment as the cornerstone of its foreign policy. We are committed
to working tirelessly together with other peace loving nations of the
world to create an environment of peace in which people can harness
all available resources to combat the scourge of poverty, hunger,
disease and illiteracy, thus achieving economic freedom without
sacrificing political freedom. As at previous sessions this year,
too, we have a long agenda and we are very conscious of the number of
crucial issues before us. We notice a progressive decline in the
international situation. There is widespread use offence, the
continuing existence of foreign occupation forces and acts of
aggression, total disregard for the principle of self determination,
and flouting of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the
Security Council. The situation prevailing in the Middle East remains
dangerous and highly explosive, posing a serious threat to
international peace and security. This state of affairs is due to the
persistence of Israel in its flagrant denial of the inalienable
rights of the Palestinian people, as recognized by the United
Nations. The latest Israeli holocaust in Lebanon has rendered the
situation in the Middle East more explosive than ever before. Along
with the peoples of all peace loving nations, we in Bangladesh have
been stunned by the appalling act of inhuman massacre of a large
number of innocent and unarmed Palestinian men, women and children in
their camps in west Beirut. The Government of Bangladesh is of the
view that the question of Palestine constitutes the core of the
Middle East problem. There can be no just and lasting peace in the
Middle East unless the Palestinian people can exercise their
legitimate rights, including the right to return to their homeland,
their right to self determination and to establish a State of their
own under the leadership of the PLO their sole and legitimate
representative, with Jerusalem as its capital. Further, the
inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force imposes an
obligation on Israel to withdraw completely from all the territories
it has occupied since 1967, including the Holy City of Jerusalem. Any
solution that fails to recognize these rights and realities will pose
a constant threat to peace and stability in the region. We are
particularly distressed at the continuing and self defeating armed
conflict between Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Bangladesh,
as a member of the Islamic Peace Committee, has made sincere efforts
to resolve that conflict peacefully. It is a great tragedy that
despite our collective efforts the war is still continuing. We should
like to make a renewed appeal to Iran and Iraq to stop this armed
conflict forthwith and to resolve their differences through peaceful
means. It is also extremely disheartening that the crises in
Afghanistan and in Kampuchea remain unresolved. We should do
everything possible to ensure the withdrawal of all foreign troops
from those two countries and to ensure that the people in both those
countries are permitted to determine their own destinies without any
outside intervention or interference. We firmly believe that peace is
possible In southern Africa only through the transfer of power to the
people of Namibia. We appreciate the sustained mediatory efforts of
the five Western Powers in evolving an agreement on Namibia's
transition to independence under the control and supervision of the
United Nations. It is the view of Bangladesh that peace and security
would be promoted through the creation of zones of peace in areas
like the Indian Ocean, South Asia and South East Asia, the
Mediterranean and other regions. Such zones would have to take into
account the interrelated aspects of eliminating the military presence
of and threat from external Powers and the maintenance of security
among the regional States. In this context, we support the convening
of a conference in Sri Lanka next year as a step towards the
implementation of the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of
Peace. Bangladesh has also been making unrelenting efforts to promote
peace and stability in the South Asian region through the creation of
a climate of trust, understanding and co operation on the basis of
mutual respect for sovereign equality and non interference in the
internal affairs of other States. Taking into account our friendly
relations within our region with India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri
Lanka and Maldives, Bangladesh has proposed the creation of a
regional co operation forum among those countries. Substantial
progress has been made towards the implementation of this proposal,
and the necessary preparatory work is still under way for making the
process self sustaining and irreversible. It has also been decided
to convene a meeting at the level of Foreign Ministers next year to
launch the forum. We believe that our statement on global issues
would be incomplete if we did not say a few words about our national
efforts to achieve a better living for our people. Mr. H. M. Ershad,
on assumption of the office of the head of Government of Bangladesh,
clearly spelt out his Government's objectives: first, to bring
maximum benefit to the 90 million people of Bangladesh; secondly, to
ensure maximum participation by the people of the country through
existing political institutions and, thirdly, to create a simple,
well balanced administration capable of responding to the needs of
the people. In order to achieve these objectives, the Government of
Bangladesh has spelt out plan priorities, which are: self sufficiency
in agriculture, population control, encouragement of the private
sector, universal primary education and extensive and integrated
rural development programmes, including health and social welfare.
These priorities and the decentralization of administration which has
been initiated by the Government are designed to revitalize the
social and economic activities and to lay the foundation of a new
Bangladesh. We are confident that these efforts by us at the national
level will receive whole hearted support from the international
community. We in Bangladesh are therefore deeply concerned that the
international situation has further deteriorated, generating despair
and pessimism. The world economy is passing through a very serious
crisis threatening both the developed and the developing countries.
The second special session devoted to disarmament has met with
miserable failure, while armament expenditures continue to rise. The
crisis spots all over the world also continue to multiply. Our most
important task therefore should be to address these problems in a
concerted and collective manner. The evolution of international
society has made it manifest more than ever before that most problems
today are interlinked and global in character. There can be no
piecemeal solution. There can be no lasting peace so long as economic
imbalances and injustices prevail. Peace is meaningless if it is not
accompanied by development. To achieve a better world, mankind must
have both. While we strive for peace, our efforts for development
should not lag behind. Bangladesh strongly believes that the right to
development is a human right and that equality of opportunity for
development is as much the prerogative of nations as of individuals
within nations. The present inequities of the world economic order,
accompanied by the accelerated arms race, is therefore at the root of
all world problems and one of the most significant obstacles to the
realization of both the right to development and the right to peace.
As the head of Government and President of the Council of Ministers
of Bangladesh, Mr. H. M. Ershad, declared from this rostrum during
the twelfth special session and the second special session devoted to
disarmament, the three major challenges confronting mankind's
continued progress and eventual survival are the arms race,
underdevelopment and the unlawful use of force in solving
international disputes. Peace and development are indivisible and
both can be achieved to a large extent through effective disarmament.
The enormous resources that can be released through a well
intentioned disarmament process would give a tremendous boost to the
development efforts of the developing countries. In this period of
resource difficulties, such diversion of resources is of crucial
importance. This point which we are making is not a new one and has
been repeated many times in this forum as well as in others.
Unfortunately, though, it has not been translated into reality by the
parties concerned. We therefore urge everyone, big or small, to give
this idea serious thought, keeping in mind the question of the
survival and progress of mankind as a whole. The annual military
expenditures of nearly $600 billion, which is more than 10 times the
amount now available for development assistance, is totally
irrational. Such wasteful use of enormous amounts of the world's
precious limited resources is also clearly immoral when millions die
of starvation and many more millions are struggling for their very
survival. Bangladesh acceded to the Treaty on the Non Proliferation
of Nuclear Weapons as a demonstration of its total commitment to
general and complete disarmament. In view of the failure of the
second special session on disarmament, we urge the super Powers and
other militarily significant States to concert their efforts so as to
commence serious negotiations on a comprehensive test ban treaty as
well as a conventional weapon treaty. Work on the comprehensive
programme of disarmament, which forms the core of the negotiations on
the reduction of armament, both nuclear and conventional, should be
started inGeneva within the framework of the Committee on
Disarmament. The failure of the Assembly at the second special
session on disarmament to produce a final document on the
comprehensive programme of disarmament should not be taken as an
alibi to avoid the responsibility that devolves on the super Powers
as well as other militarily significant countries. Bangladesh, in its
total commitment to general and complete disarmament, has applied for
membership in the Committee on Disarmament and is ready to contribute
to all future disarmament negotiations to be undertaken in the
Committee on Disarmament. The present world economic crisis is of a
global nature. The interrelationship of issues and the
interdependence of the countries are so clearly established that
isolated measures by any individual country or group of countries
cannot solve the contradictions and difficulties that appear as a
result of profound structural imbalance. On the other hand, we agree
with the view that deterioration in the international economic
situation has in part been due to policies pursued in countries with
a preponderant weight in the world economy, as they have sought to
solve their problems on a national basis. The present state of crisis
can be overcome only through a global and concerted effort on the
part of countries. Therefore we believe that a lasting improvement in
international economic relations can be achieved only through a
global dialogue a sincere, determined and imaginative co operation
between the developed and the developing countries. It does not need
reiteration that all nations have a stake in the recovery of the
world economy and should, therefore, engage themselves in a
purposeful effort to address themselves to a world recovery programme
and a restructuring the existing international economic relations.
Bangladesh believes that the present unjust international economic
system requires structural reforms which could result only from a
comprehensive and integrated approach to the present international
economic issues through the participation of all countries in a round
of global negotiations for the establishment of the new international
economic order. Bangladesh has, therefore, actively joined in all the
initiatives and efforts for the launching of global negotiations as
envisaged in General Assembly resolution 34/138. We earnestly hope
that in view of its importance to the economic development of the
world as a whole, it will be possible for us to launch the global
negotiations without further delay. Bangladesh will continue to make
its humble contribution towards this effort in its capacity as
Chairman of the Group of 77. Before concluding, on behalf of the
Bangladesh delegation, I wish to assure you, Mr. President, and
through you all the members of the Assembly that Bangladesh is
determined to play a meaningful and constructive role in finding just
and equitable solutions to the problems which face us today. It is
our strong belief that, despite the frustrations of the past, the
United Nations system is still the only organization which can bring
effective peace, progress prosperity to our world. In order to
achieve common objective, all the Members of the United Nations, big
and small, must unite together to make this body more effective both
in spirit and in action.