On behalf of the delegation of the Lao People's
Democratic Republic, I should like at the outset
to congratulate you, Comrade President, on your
unanimous election to your high office for this
session of the General Assembly. In choosing you,
the General Assembly pays a tribute both to your
country, the sister People's Republic of Hungary,
whose tireless efforts in the cause of peace and
socialism are well known and with which my
country enjoys excellent relations of friendship
and militant solidarity and to you and to your
outstanding qualities as a diplomat for whom the
workings of the United Nations hold no secrets. I
am therefore convinced that on the basis of your
vast experience and thorough knowledge of
international affairs you will lead the work of
this session towards fruitful results.
141. I would also like to pay a tribute to your
pre¬decessor, Mr. Ismat Kittani, who guided the
thirty- sixth session of the Assembly, as well as
the special sessions, with authority and skill.
142. I also wish to salute the
Secretary-General, Mr. Perez de Cuellar, on his
election to his high office, involving great
responsibility, and for his courage and untiring
efforts in the cause of maintaining international
peace and security.
143. Since the beginning of the thirty-sixth
session of the Assembly, the international
situation has con¬tinued to deteriorate and the
international community has found itself faced
with a number of crises. For the most aggressive
imperialist factions, per¬sisting with their
policy of adventurism, aggression and economic
blocs, have created or rekindled hot¬beds of
tension in various regions of the world.
Inter¬national peace and security have never been
so threatened.
144. In the Middle East, the situation remains
explosive because of the policy of aggression and
extermination being carried out by those who hold
power ip Israel and those who support and arm
them against the Palestinian and Lebanese Arab
peoples. The bloody crimes committed by Israel
against the Arab Palestinian and Lebanese
peoples, the occupa¬tion of Lebanon and other
Arab territories and the monstrous genocide
committed in the Palestinian refugee camps have
been condemned by the world. We express our
unreserved solidarity with the Pales¬tinian Arab
people and with the PLO, their sole legitimate
representative, with the Lebanese people and with
all the victims of Israeli aggression and
barbarity.
145. For the Lao People's Democratic Republic,
the just and lasting solution to the question of
Palestine and of the Middle East as a whole,
which should be worked out through negotiations
with the partici¬pation of all the parties
concerned, including the PLO, presupposes the
withdrawal by Israel from all the Arab
territories occupied since 1967 and recog¬nition
of the right of the Palestinian people to
estab¬lish an independent State the six-point
proposal of President Brezhnev, as well as the
proposals of the Fez Arab Summit Conference fully support this position.
146. The conflict between Iran and Iraq has
already been the cause of many losses, both
material and human, on both sides and has
benefited neither of the parties to it. Quite the
contrary, the longer it goes on, the more
conditions favorable to the intervention and
interference of imperialism in the region it will
create. The Lao People's Democratic Republic
hopes that the two parties, both members of the
non-aligned movement, with succeed in reaching a
peaceful solution to their differences.
147. The undeclared war being waged by
imperialism and other reactionary forces against
the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan poses a
serious threat to its independence and
sovereignty and its revolutionary achievements.
The Lao People's Democratic Republic firmly
condemns such acts and supports the efforts of
the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to settle
with its neighbors by political means problems
pertaining to the maintenance of peace and
stability in the region.
148. In the Korean peninsula, the situation
remains tense. The ever-growing presence of
American troops in the southern part of Korea
constitutes a major obstacle to the process of
the peaceful and democratic reunification of
Korea.
149. In the area of the Indian Ocean, the
military presence of the United States has
jeopardized the convening of the United Nations
conference designed to establish the Indian Ocean
as a zone of peace. The Lao People's Democratic
Republic associates itself with the coastal
countries in the region in calling for the
dismantling of the Diego Garcia base and other
so-called logistical military facilities. In
reiterating our support for Madagascar's proposal
and our commitment to the Declaration of the
Indian Ocean as a Zone of, the Lao People's
Democratic Republic hopes that the envisaged
international conference will be able to take
place as soon as possible.
150. The Lao People's Democratic Republic
gives its whole-hearted support to the just
struggle of the South African patriots against
the repugnant apartheid regime and for the
recovery of their fundamental national rights and
supports the valiant struggle of the Namibian
people, under the leadership of SWAPO, for the
independence and territorial integrity of
Nami¬bia. We condemn the repeated acts of
aggression committed by South Africa against
Angola, Mozam¬bique and other neighbouring
African countries, and we reaffirm our militant
solidarity with that peoples of those countries
in the struggle for the defense of their
independence and sovereignty.
151. The Lao People's Democratic Republic
reaf¬firms its militant solidarity with the
Sahraaui people under the leadership of the
POLISARIO Front in their just struggle for
self-determination and inde¬pendence.
152. The Lao People s Democratic Republic,
which recognizes the sovereignty of Argentina
over the Malvinas, believes that a final
settlement of this matter should be negotiated
within the framework of the United Nations,
bearing in mind its relevant reso¬lutions.
153. The policy and actions of American
imperialism with regard to Cuba, Nicaragua and
Grenada should be vigorously condemned. The Lao
People's Democratic Republic reaffirms its
unswerving support for the just struggle of the
peoples of those countries to defend their
national independence and their revolutionary
achievements and demands the resto¬ration of
Guantanamo to the Republic of Cuba.
154. The Lao People's Democratic Republic also
supports the struggle of the Puerto Rican people
for its right to self-determination and
independence, and that of the people of El
Salvador for its freedom and democratic rights.
155. In their efforts to destroy the
approximate military and strategic balance in
Europe and in the world as a whole, the Unite
States and other countries of NATO have been
exerting undisguised pressure on Poland and have
been interfering in its internal affairs with a
view to perpetuating the crisis in that country.
The Lao People's Democratic Republic vigorously
condemns these acts and reaffirms its unswerving
solidarity with the Polish United Workers' Party
and the Polish State in their efforts to maintain
public order and to promote the normalization of
the situation in that country.
156. Foreign interference in the internal
affairs of Cyprus has been preventing the
intercommunal talks from making progress. In the
interest of the Cypriot people as a whole, a halt
must be called to this inter¬ference and the
territorial integrity of the country must be
scrupulously respected.
157. Peace and stability in South-East Asia
are in constant danger from the expansionist and
hegemonist policy pursued by the reactionaries in
the Chinese ruling circles who are striving to
maintain a state of tension on the Sino-Lao and
Sino-Viet-namese borders by massing troops there
which engage in armed incursions for die purpose
of provocation and sabotage, and also on the
Thai-Kampuchea border by helping the remnants of
the Pol Pot forces and a handful of Khmer
reactionaries to undermine the rebirth of the
Kampuchean people.
158. But in spite of these hostile acts, Lao
People's Democratic Republic, Viet Nam and
Kampuchea, constantly motivated by the wish to
live in peace, friendship and co-operation with
their neighbors, and in particular with China,
have over the last few years made a number of
proposals, including the proposal to sign a
bilateral or multilateral treaty of peaceful
coexistence between them and China with a view to
normalizing their relations.
159. The problems which now exist in
South-East Asia have been essentially brought
about by foreign interventions and interference.
It is therefore of fundamental importance to
proceed immediately to a comprehensive settlement
of those problems. Any delay in doing this would
serve only to inflame the situation which now
prevails.
160. In accordance with that analysis and
desiring to make an active contribution to the
consolidation of peace and stability in
South-East Asia, and also to promote the
continuation of dialogue between the States in
the region, the Foreign Minister of the Lao
People's Democratic Republic, on behalf of the
three countries of Indo-China, sent a letter
dated 15 Sep-tember i982, to their counterparts
in the countries of ASEAN. Its essential Content
is as follows: ''
"The Thai side regards the presence of units of
the Vietnamese army near the Kampuchea-Thailand
border as a threat to Thailand's security.
Mean¬while, Kampuchea, Viet Nam and Laos consider
the use of Thai territory by China and the Pol
Pot clique together with other reactionary Khmer
forces against the revival of the Kampuchean
people a constant threat to the security of
Kampuchea and other Indo-Chinese countries.
"The realities of the past three years have shown
that the presence of Vietnamese troops in
Kam¬puchea does not threaten in any way
Thailand's security. Many a time the Thai side
has stated that there is no need to sign
non-aggression treaties between Thailand and the
three Indo- Chinese countries since there is no
danger of aggres¬sion by Viet Nam against
Thailand. On the contrary, the activities of the
Pol Pot clique and other Khmer reactionaries
based in Thailand have seriously threatened
Kampuchea's security, causing a continually
explosive situation on the Thailand- Kampuchea
border. The recent founding of a so-called
tripartite coalition Government is aimed at
helping the Pol Pot clique and other Khmer
reactionaries step up activities against the
People's Republic of Kampuchea, undermining the
revival of the Kampuchean people and aggravating
the tension on the Kampuchea-Thailand border. To
maintain and to give it their support, the ASEAN
countries cannot avoid running Airther counter to
their objective of 'founding a political
solution' as they have declared. This will create
a dangerous precedent for foreign intervention
against inde¬pendent and sovereign nations and
violate the principles of the Charter of the
United Nations and the non-aligned movement.
"We deem it necessary to heed the security
interests of Thailand, and at the same time to
heed the security interests of Kampuchea. To this
end, there should be effective measures to check
the use of the territory of one country against
the other. Proceeding from this basic stand, the
People's Republic of Kampuchea proposed in July
1980 to establish a demilitarized zone along the
Kampuchea- Thailand border, but the Thai side did
not agree, saying that it cannot withdraw its
troops from a part of its own territory.
"At the recent Conference of the Lao, Kampu¬chean
and Vietnamese Foreign Ministers, the three
Indo-Chinese countries took notice of Thailand's
stand on a demilitarized zone and put forward a
new proposal to set up a safety zone along the
Kampuchea-Thailand border. This proposal meets
Thailand's concern that troops of the Thai
King¬dom should not withdraw from a part of its
territory. The new proposal only asks for the
withdrawal of forces which do not belong to
Thailand or the People's Republic of Kampuchea
from the safety zone. The three Indo-Chinese
countries voice their readiness to discuss and
reach agreement with the Thai side on such
concrete matters as the width of the safety zone,
the scope of Vietnamese troops withdrawal from
the Kampuchea-Thailand border as well as the
agreement of the transfer, of the Pol-Potist and
other Khmer reactionaries and refugee camps far,
from this border, the three Indo-Chinese
countries deem it necessary to agree on a form of
international supervision of the safety.
"To show their good will, the People's Republic
of Kampuchea and the Socialist Republic of Viet
Nam have of late made a first step by
unilaterally withdrawing some units of Vietnamese
troops from Kampuchea. If the Thai side gives a
positive response to this good will act, the
People's Republic of Kampuchea and the Socialist
Republic of Viet Nam will withdraw more units of
Viet¬namese troops from Kampuchea.
"In case Thailand refuses to establish the safety
zone, the three Indo-Chinese countries are ready
to discuss and reach agreement with the Thai side
on any measure strictly to respect the Kampuchea-
Thailand border as well as any measure including
a form of international supervision to ensure
peace and stability there.
"Many a time the People's Republic of Kam¬puchea
has stated that the agreement on this question is
not related to the de jure recognition of each
other. The People's Republic of Kampuchea will
not let the question of mutual recognition hinder
the discussion and agreement on the safety zone.
The realities of the past 30 years have shown
that the United States and Thailand signed with
Viet Nam and China the 1961-1962 Geneva Agreement
on Laos, and the United States and Viet Nam
signed the Paris Agree¬ment on Viet Nam in 1973
without subsequent mutual recognition.
"The ASEAN countries have stood for the
con¬vening of an international conference within
the framework of the United Nations to settle the
Kam¬puchea problem. They have unilaterally
convened this conference in disregard of the
three Indo- Chinese countries' protest. This is
an imposition from one side. The three
Indo-Chinese countries have put forward a
proposal to convene a regional conference between
the two groups of ASEAN and Indo-Chinese
countries. This has not been agreed to by the
ASEAN countries and such regional con¬ference has
not been convened.
"The realities of the past three years have shown
that an international conference is fruitful only
when there is the agreement and participation of
the directly related parties. The international
conference convened by the United Nations in July
1981 only ended in an impasse. With the good will
to find an issue for this abnormal situation, and
taking into consideration the ASEAN countries'
proposal for an international conference and the
three Indo-Chinese countries' proposal for a
regional con¬ference, the recent conference of
Vietnamese, Lao and Kampuchean Foreign Ministers
put forward a proposal for an international
conference on Southeast Asia with the
participation of nine countries inside and six
others outside the area. (The nine former are the
three Indo-Chinese countries, the five ASEAN
countries and Burma; the six latter are the
Soviet Union, the United States, China, France,
the United Kingdom and India).
."This conference will be convened only when
agreement is reached between the, directly
related countries, i.e. the ASEAN-and the
Indo-Chinese counties,, on the composition; of
Participants, agenda, place and time of the
conference.
"Regarding the composition of participants, there
may be disagreement on the countries taking part
J particularly on the representation of
Kampuchea. I think that this matter can be
discussed and a formula acceptable to all can be
found. It should not hinder the convening of the
conference. The three Indo- Chinese countries,
welcome the United Nations contribution to peace
and stability in South-East Asia. But the United
Nations maintenance of the Pol Pot genocidal
clique has inhibited its positive role.
"Concerning the agenda, there may also be
disagreement. I think that the conference can
discuss all the problems in the region raised by
each side on the principle of complete equality.
For us there are many ways: an agreed agenda, an
open agenda, or an agenda with agreed-upon
problems and open- ended problems.
"About the place, I think that the conference can
meet in a South-East Asian country, a neutral
country in Asia or Europe, perhaps at Rangoon,
New Delhi, Paris, Stockholm or Vienna, as agreed
by the two groups of countries.
"As for the time of the conference, I think that
the problems of peace and stability in Southeast
Asia are most urgent and need to be settled, the
sooner the better. Therefore I think that it
should be convened in the last three months of
this year or early next year."
161. In Kampuchea, Pol Pot and his criminal
clique, before being overthrown in 1979, embarked
on the genocide of their own people and took the
country back to the stone-age, at the instigation
of foreigners. Blood, hunger and exodus were the
price of this process internally, while
externally bloody aggressions against
neighbouring countries left an indelible imprint.
Since that time the horror has ended for the
Kamrpuchean people, and under the leadership of
the Government of the People's Republic of
Kampuchea that people has witnessed a miraculous
revival in unity and national harmony and its
political, economic, cultural and social
situation has undergone a striking return to
normal. The conditions of life of the people are
unquestionably improving; National institutions
have been established at all levels throughout
the territory of the country after, the general
elections J in particular the Constitution and
the Parliament. This legitimate Government,
supported by all Kampucheans, is unremittingly
pursuing a foreign policy of peace, friendship,
co-operation and good-neighborliness.
162. The international community is now in a
posi¬tion, knowing the facts, to draw impartially
and objec¬tively a comparison between the four
years of the reign of terror and genocide of the
Pol Pot regime and the three years of the
Government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea
and conclude which has done more for Kampuchea
and its valiant people and which of the two
deserves the honor and the right to speak on
behalf of Kampuchea.
163. For its part, the Lao People's Democratic
Republic believes that the United Nations must
restore to the Government of the People's
Republic of Kampuchea, the sole authentic and
legal representative of the Kampuehean people,
its proper place in the Organization and to expel
from it the representatives of the former
butchers of the Kampuchean people regardless of
what new guise they may appear in.
164. In so doing, the Organization would
enhance its prestige and be doing simple justice
to the Kam¬puchean people and, above all, to the
memory of 3 million of them who were murdered.
165. The year 1982 has also been marked by the
unbridled pursuit of the arms race by the
imperialists and military circles of NATO. This
has been brought about by the policy of
confrontation of the current United States
Administration and even more by its ambition to
attain a fallacious military and strategic
"superiority" over the Soviet Union, and certain
strategists of the Pentagon who have gone so far
as to advocate the first nuclear strike and even
the pos¬sibility of a so-called limited nuclear
war. In order to extract revenue from the
taxpayers and to win over public opinion to this
cause, there has been no end to the fables that
have been concocted about the so- called Soviet
threat.
166. Negotiations on arms limitations and
disarm¬ament, in various United Nations bodies
and other forums, in particular the Soviet-United
States bilateral negotiations, have not led to
any results. They either run up against the
opposition of the United States and its allies or
are unilaterally abandoned by them. This is what
happened to consideration of the question on the
prohibition of nuclear-weapon tests in the
Committee on Disarmament, the question of halting
the nuclear-arms race and negotiations on the
prohibition of the development, manufacture and
stockpiling of chemical weapons and their
destruction, for example.
167. Although the twelfth special session, the
second special session of the General Assembly
devoted to disarmament, held in June this year,
yielded no con¬crete results, it was nevertheless
of great significance because it showed the world
which countries are working for the cause of
peace and disarmament and which are striving to
impede attainment of that goal.
168. President Leonid Brezhnev's message
delivered at the 12th meeting of that special
session announcing the unilateral undertaking by
the Soviet Union not to be the first to use
nuclear weapons is an illustration of the
Leninist peace policy pursued by the Soviet Union
and it won the warm and total support of the Lao
People's Democratic Republic as well as that of
all peace-loving peoples in the world.
169. At the second special session on
disarmament, the Soviet Union reaffirmed and
developed its pro¬posals* for the consolidation
of peace, strengthening of detente and curbing of
the arms race—proposals which it had put forward
at the twenty-sixth Con¬gress of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union. Those proposals are
constructive and realistic, and members of the
Committee on Disarmament should examine them most
seriously.
170. In the face of the ever-growing threat to
inter¬national peace and security represented by
the arms race, in particular the nuclear-arms
race and the race in other weapons of mass
destruction, the Lao People's Democratic Republic
welcomes any proposal aimed at eliminating that
threat. As a country that was the victim of
colonial and neo-colonial aggression and that
lived under the constant threat of imperialism,
expansionism and hegemonism, my country supports
the proposal of the People's Republic of Mongolia
for the conclusion of a convention on
non-aggression and non-use of force in relations
between Asian and Pacific States. The signing of
such a convention would undoubtedly contribute to
peace and co-oper¬ation in that part of the world.
171. The deterioration in the world economic
situa¬tion, that has come about in the last few
years was even more marked in 1982. The developed
capitalist countries, whose responsibility it is
to take appropriate measures to remedy this
situation, were unwilling to depart from their
negative attitude. This international economic
crisis provoked by the devel¬oped capitalist
countries has had an even greater effect on the
developing countries, in particular the
least-advanced among them. This serves only to
stress the interdependence of the two groups of
coun¬tries. The continued decline in the economic
situation in the developing countries could well,
over the long term, entail adverse effects for
the developed countries themselves. It is
therefore in their own interests to demonstrate
greater political will and realism in order to
restructure the present system of international
economic relations which is founded on injustice
and exploitation.
172. The picture I have just outlined would
appear at first sight a little gloomy.
Nevertheless it is encour¬aging to note that
crisis mongers and fomenters of war are becoming
more and more isolated and coming in for
increased international condemnation and that the
forces that are fighting for peace Justice and
social progress, on the other hand, are becoming
stronger with each passing day. This is proof
that the masses are no longer willing to live
with the specter of a nuclear conflagration
hanging over them, in poverty and exploitation.
They are calling for a halt to the unbridled arms
race, for improvement of their living conditions
and for a peaceful world for both their own
generation and that of their children. In a word,
they are calling for change in the existing
international order and its replacement by a
new—just, equitable and democratic—international
order where relations would be based on true
equality and mutually advan¬tageous co-operation.
173. By combining our efforts to respond to
their call and to their needs, we would be
discharging our obligations under the Charter.