I wish to extend, on behalf of my delegation and on my own behalf,
warm congratulations to Mr. Hollai on his well-deserved election as
President of the thirty-seventh session of the General Assembly. His
accession to this high office is a tribute to his personal qualities
and wide knowledge and experience of international affairs. I assure
him of my delegation's co-operation in the months ahead. I should
also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Kittani on the
wisdom and competence he displayed in guiding the debates of the
thirty-sixth session, and to express our gratitude for his devoted
service to the work of the General Assembly. It is a pleasure for me
to pay a tribute also to the Secretary-General, whose first year in
office has been particularly difficult. He has faced the challenges
of his office with courage, realism and persistence. By his efforts
on behalf of world peace and the authority of the United Nations, Mr.
Perez de Cuellar has shown himself to be worthy of the great
responsibility upon his shoulders.
219. As the General Assembly takes stock once again of the world
situation, there can be little cause for satisfaction over the state
of international" affairs. Whether we consider the proliferation of
dangerous regional conflicts or the inability of the United Nations
to maintain peace and security through collective action, the outlook
is not encouraging.
220. In the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, southern Africa,
Afghanistan and South-East Asia and in the recent Falkland (Malvinas)
Islands dispute, the United Nations has not been able to fulfil its
most fundamental purposes of peace-making and peace-keeper. In many
cases when people suffering from injustice, oppression and foreign
domination turn to the United Nations for redress, basing their hopes
on the provisions of the
221. After nearly four decades of experience in using the Charter as
the legal standard governing inter-national relations, the wisdom and
validity of its principles remain incontestable. However, its wide,
global objectives continue to be subordinated to narrowly conceived
national interests. In our view, this is the cause of the current
breakdown in inter-national law and order. Unless Member States
address themselves seriously and sincerely to this dilemma, they
cannot hope to achieve workable solutions to
222. In the Middle East Israel's denial of Palestinian rights is
the driving force behind its lawless and barbarous devastation of
Lebanon. International anarchy is nowhere so rampant as in this area,
where Israel has shown that there are no limits to its con-tempt for
international law and its callous inhumanity. Not content with
denying Palestinian rights, the Israelis are seeking to exterminate
the Palestinians themselves. In pursuit of their final solution to
the problem they have launched a criminal aggression against a
sovereign State, and they have had no qualms about the destruction of
cities through saturation bombing and the killing and maiming of
thousands of civilians, including women and children, by the use of
vicious phosphorous and anti-personnel cluster bombs.
223. The recent massacres in the Shatila and Sabra camps in west
Beirut have confronted us with horrors similar to those of the
holocaust of the Second World War. Israel cannot escape
responsibility for aiding and abetting the perpetration of the
crimes against the defenceless civilians of those camp-rimes which
have been strongly condemned by the entire world community. Israel
has in the past claimed in inter-national forums that its actions
stem from a special religious and moral authority. Are we now asked
to believe that the wanton destruction of life and property in
Lebanon was carried out at the dictate of a just Creator, or that
tragedies of the past which have no bearing on the Middle East
justify Israel's expansionist greed and genocidal policies?
224. My Government hopes that the General Assembly will be
uncompromising in its condemnation of Israel for the carnage in
Lebanon and will also be vigilant in opposing any Israeli attempts at
imposing new faits accomplis with regard to Lebanese territory. It
must demand Israel's 'immediate, complete and unconditional
withdrawal from Lebanon.
225. The General Assembly must also keep inter-national public
opinion focused on Israel's arrogant annexations of Arab territories,
including the Holy City of Jerusalem. It must be reaffirmed that the
status of the city, which is sacred to Moslems and Christians as well
as to Jews, cannot be unilaterally determined. The increased level of
persecution in the West Bank and Gaza and the defiant escalation of
the illegal settlement policy must also continue to be strongly
condemned. .
226. The failure of the Security Council in the past to take
effective measures against Israel for its violations of international
law certainly encouraged the Israeli Government to believe that it
could flout any international convention, commit any act of
aggression or carry out any atrocity with impunity. It is more than
time for it to be disabused of this belief. Israel has undoubtedly
breached the peace of the Middle East and threatened world peace and
security. Its outright rejection of all proposals which could serve
as a basis for negotiations shows that it has turned its back on
peace and that it plans to continue with is expansionism at any cost.
In our view, if the Security Council is to maintain any credibility
and authority in world affairs it must be prepared to take
significant action, including the imposition of sanctions, in order
to check Israel's dangerous and irresponsible course.
227. The tragic conflict between Iraq and the Islamic Republic of
Iran is another unfortunate reflection of our troubled times. My
Government sincerely I hopes that the ongoing mediation efforts will
succeed in the difficult and sensitive task of bringing an end to
this conflict which has destabilized the Gulf area. Somalia adds its
voice to the appeals of other Member States for the immediate
cessation of hostilities and the start of negotiations which would
ensure a return to peace and amity in the region.
228. The problems of southern Africa have always involved the
fundamental principles of the Charter and over the years have
increasingly threatened regional and international peace and
security. These problems remain acute in spite of the fact that the
struggle against South Africa's racist and colonial policies is in
its final stages. .
229. Unfortunately, the Pretoria regime is encouraged by the
continued political, economic and military support of its main
trading partners to intensify its racist oppression in South Africa,
to remain illegally in Namibia and to attempt to dominate the
southern African region through military aggression, political
pressure and economic subversion. Clearly, the General Assembly must
reiterate its call for unremitting efforts by the world community to
eliminate apartheid and to enable the United Nations to carry out its
legal responsibility for leading Namibia to independence.
230. Within South Africa the racist policies of the apartheid
system are being applied with ever- increasing severity as the
liberation struggle gains in effectiveness and strength. The
legitimacy of that struggle cannot be over-emphasized. In the long
history of the uprising of peoples against tyrannical and colonial
forms of oppression, revolutionary wars have been fought for much
less pressing reasons than the degrading inhumanity of apartheid.
231. The liberation movements within and outside South Africa
deserve the strongest moral, material and political support for their
efforts to regain the human dignity and fundamental right of the
majority of the population. As for South Africa's ruling minority, it
should be ostracized and isolated until it is prepared to take steps
to establish a just society.
232. In the case of Namibia the salient factor is the illegality
of South Africa's presence in the Territory, a status determined by
the International Court of Justice and Security Council resolution
435 (1978), which remains the only valid basis for a settlement. It
is now four years since South Africa began its machinations aimed at
obstructing Namibia's independence. No longer can the international
community tolerate South Africa's bad faith, its oppressive
domination of the Namibian people and its brutal war against their
liberation movement under the leadership of SWAPO.
233. My Government sincerely hopes that the current optimism over the
prospect of a Namibian settlement is justified. However, in view of
South Africa's past performance we believe that the General Assembly
must not fail to remind the five Western States of their commitment
to independence for Namibia as speedily as possible. In our view,
there will be little progress on Namibia or on other southern African
issues unless South Africa is made to understand General
Assembly-Thirty-seventh Session-Plenary Meetings that it will
certainly face comprehensive economic sanctions if it continues its
intransigent, aggressive and inhuman policies.
234. The growing use of brute force as an instrument of foreign
policy is disturbingly evident in the Soviet Union's continued
occupation of Afghanistan, a small non-aligned State, and in its
attempt to crush the resistance of the proud and courageous Afghan
people. The same super-Power which invokes in the United Nations the
doctrine of the non-use of force in international relations is
responsible for the loss of thousands of innocent lives at the hands
of its invading forces, for the devastation of Afghanistan's economy
and for the creation of one of the world's largest refugee
populations.
235. The ruthless nature of this war is further illustrated by the
use of Afghanistan as a testing ground for forms of chemical warfare
long condemned as barbarous by the international community. The
General assembly must continue to keep the plight of Afghanistan
before the attention of the world and to stand firmly by its
resolutions and those of the Security Council which call for the
unconditional withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country.
236. The presence of foreign troops in Democratic Kampuchea is
another example of the subversion of national independence through
foreign domination. Here again military aggression and alien rule
have given rise to a tragic refugee situation and to chronic tension
and conflict. My Government hopes that the efforts of the members of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other States to ensure
the restoration of legitimacy and national independence in Democratic
Kampuchea will be successful and that the constructive proposals made
at the recent International Conference on Kampuchea will be fruitful.
A political settlement would undoubtedly have far-reaching effects on
the peace and stability of the whole South-East Asian region.
237. Since the adoption of General Assembly resolution 2832 (XXVI) on
the Indian Ocean, serious obstacles have been placed in the way of
implementing the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace
by Soviet military intervention in the affairs of the countries of
the region and in their local conflicts. Moreover, with the military
and naval forces of the Soviet Union firmly entrenched in bases
provided to it by certain regional States, there has been a steady
deterioration in the stability and security of the countries of the
region. These dangerous developments have set the stage for the
escalation of super-Power confrontation and military rivalry in the
Indian Ocean. It is, therefore, more important than ever for Member
States to reaffirm their commitment to the principles enshrined in
resolution 2832 (XXVI) and to the provisions of the Final Document of
the Meeting of the Littoral and Hinterland States of the Indian Ocean.
238. In supporting these principles and provisions my delegation
places particular emphasis on the dismantling of all foreign bases
and the withdrawal of all foreign forces, including surrogate troops,
from the regional and on the obligation of the regional States to
settle disputes with one another by peaceful means, on the basis of
the principles of the United Nations Charter.
239. The Horn of Africa, my own area, continues to be affected by
tension and conflict, not because of territorial or boundary
disputes, as Ethiopian propaganda would have the international
community believe, but because of the denial of the right to
self-determination by the colonial regime of Ethiopia to its subject
peoples of Western Somalia and of Eretria.. The importance of this
right is emphasized in Chapter I, Article 2, of the Charter, which
directs the United-Nations to develop friendly relations among States
based on respect for the principle of equal rights and the right to
self-determination of peoples.
240. The grave regional and international repercussions of the denial
of those rights continue to trouble the Horn of Africa. The exodus of
the hundreds of thousands who fled from persecutions and oppression
to take refuge in Somalia and other neighbouring countries involved
great human suffering, placed intolerable burdens on host countries
and continues today to be a disaster situation calling for
humanitarian assistance from the international community.
241. My Government's overriding concern in its approach to the
problems of Ethiopian colonialism is that the peoples of Western
Somalia and Eritrea be allowed to exercise the rights guaranteed
under General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV) and 1541 (XV).
Certainly, if the European colonial Powers had opposed the freedom
struggle in Africa with the same arguments which Ethiopia continues
to advance today to explain its continued occupation of Western
Somalia, very few colonial peoples would have been able to take
advantage of the provisions of resolutions 1514 (XV) and 1541 (XV).
242. It is important for the world community to understand that until
the 1890s when the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik joined the European
Powers in their scramble for Africa, the people of Western Somalia
enjoyed an independent existence and controlled their own affairs. It
was in the course of MeneJik's presumptuous attempt to extend the
Ethiopian Empire from Khartoum to Lake Nyanza that the Ogaden was
brutally seized.
243. Unfortunately, it served the interests of the colonial Powers to
support Menelik's territorial ambitions, and in typical imperialist
fashion illegal treaties purporting to transfer Somali territory to
the Ethiopian Empire were concluded-without the knowledge of the
people of Western Somalia. It was particularly ironic that the
supposed authority for transferring Somali territory was the series
of treaties between the colonial Powers and Somali chiefs which
guaranteed that the Somali people would be protected by those same
Powers and that their territory would not be ceded to any other Power.
244. It should be noted that Ethiopia was unable to exercise
sovereignty over an area which was clearly outside its normal
political, cultural and ethnic influence until after the Second World
War, and in some instances as recently as 1955. During the Halo
Abyssinian war of 1935-1936 Western Somalia was occupied by Italy.
Shortly afterwards the British conquered former Italian Somaliland
and Western Somalia
and, together with Somali territories already under British
colonialism, virtually all of Somaliland was united under a single
colonial Power. In "1942 Britain restored Ethiopian sovereignty in
Ethiopia proper which it had captured from Italy during the war, but
it retained the administration of Western Somalia. Unfortunately, the
inhabitants of the territory were once again betrayed by the British
Government and transferred against their will to Ethiopian rule in
1948 and 1955.
245. I take the liberty of recounting these historical facts not
only to refresh the memory of representatives present in the Assembly
but also to underscore the fact that the Territory of Western Somalia
is no different from other Territories which have since the Second
World War benefited from the process of decolonization in recognition
of the universal principle of the right of peoples to
self-determination and national independence, as enshrined in the
Charter. It is the denial ofthat right by the Empire State of
Ethiopia which is at the root of the conflict in the Horn of Africa.
246. As I have already stated, Ethiopian colonial repression has
generated refugees numbering millions. In Somalia alone there are
700,000 persons in camps and a similar number are living among the
population all over the country. Unless the problem of Western
Somalia is resolved on the basis of the exercise of
self-determination by the people of Western Somalia, the refugees
will not be able to return to their homes in safety and honour, and
there is every likelihood that their presence in Somalia and other
countries of the Horn of Africa besides constituting a grave danger
for the peace and security of the region will also take on a
permanent character necessitating continued relief aid and assistance
by the international community. The dangerous situation already
existing in the Horn of Africa, owing to colonialist Ethiopia's
policies of repression and genocide at its denial of the right to
self-determination to the people of Western Somalia-and, indeed, to
the other subject peoples within the Empire State of Ethiopia such as
Eritrea, Oromia and Tigray-has been further aggravated by that
country's wanton invasion of the territory of the Somali Democratic
Republic since 1 July of this year.
247. As representatives are no doubt aware, my Government has
addressed several communications to States Members of the United
Nations regarding this invasion and has given details of the nature
and extent of the unprovoked aggression, in which tanks and armoured
personnel carriers, long-range artillery and fighter bombers,
supplied to Ethiopia in massive quantities by a super-Power have been
deployed. Heavily armed Ethiopian infantry brigades. supported by
foreign forces, have managed to cross the de facto border-at one
point as deep as 32 kilometers in an effort to cut the important
arterial road which links the southern and northern parts of the
Somali Democratic Republic in order to disrupt a major lifeline of
our country. The town of Galdogob and the village of Blambal1e have
been captured and Galcayo, the regional capital of Mudug, has been
subjected to several aerial attacks by MIG-23s.
248. Somalia has opposed this invasion of its sovereignty and
territorial integrity in conformity with its right to self-defence
under Article 51 of the Charter and has so far repelled further
incursions into its territory. Unfortunately, both sides have
stuttered heavy casualties and considerable damage has been caused to
property in those areas of my country which have been attacked.
249. Ethiopia has attempted to spread the fiction that its forces are
not responsible for this naked act of aggression against Somali
territory. However, the recorded statements of deserters and
prisoners, along with captured documents in Russian and Amharic,
substantiate beyond any shadow of doubt that it is the Ethiopian army
which has undertaken the large-scale aggression mounted against my
country.
250. The use of T-55 tanks, MIG-23s, armoured personnel carriers and
heavy artillery, much of them new and complete with Soviet operation
manuals dated 1982 and bearing Ethiopian military insignia is
indisputable evidence of Ethiopia's direct responsibility for its
invasion.
251. It is ironic that the major Ethiopian air base at Gode in
occupied Ogaden. from which Ethiopian planes make their murderous
attacks on the Somali population, is the same airport which the
Ethiopian regime requested the United Nations, through a report of
the Secretary-General of 12 September 1980,8 to finance and
reconstruct, supposedly as a centre for humanitarian missions in the
area.
252. The international community has strongly condemned Ethiopia for
its invasion of my country -its shameless denials notwithstanding. By
way of example, the 69th Inter-Parliamentary Conference. which was
held in Rome in September. strongly condemned Ethiopia's invasion and
called for, among other things, the immediate, total and
unconditional withdrawal of all foreign forces from the territoryof
the Somali Democratic Republic Similarly, the Twelfth Arab Summit
Conference held at Fez in September, also strongly condemned Ethiopia
for its invasion and called for the strict observance of Somalia's
sovereignty and territorial integrity.
253. The Somali people are united in their determination to stand
firm against Ethiopian aggression, and the Somali armed forces will
continue to repel the attacks against our country. However, it is not
my Government's wish that the Horn of Africa should become a
permanent trouble spot threatening regional and international peace
and security. Colonialist Ethiopia must therefore be forced by the
international community to evacuate its forces from Somali territory
and to desist from committing further aggression against our soil.
For our part we remain ready to co-operate in the search for
effective political solutions to the problems of the area. What is
certain is that these problems will not be solved by oppressive
measures and premeditated aggression. Peace and stability can be
achieved only if historical wrongs are redressed and legitimate
national aspirations are recognized and respected.
254. My Government is deeply disappointed by the failure of the
second special session on disarmament to draw up a comprehensive
programme of disarmament. We deplore also the continued spiralling of
the arms race in nuclear weapons, the setback to negotiations for a
test-ban treaty and the stalemate on the establishment of a
convention prohibiting the use of chemical weapons.
255. It is clear therefore that there must be redoubled efforts on
the part of the nuclear Powers and militarily significant States to
translate the goals of the tenth special session into practical terms.
256. Bold new initiatives and higher levels of statesmanship will
be required if the nuclear Powers are to break out of the vicious
circle of mutual suspicion in which they are caught and if they are
to remove the threat of nuclear annihilation that hangs over the
world. In this regard the start of talks between the United States
and the Soviet Union on the reduction of strategic weapons and the
high level of public interest and involvement in disarmament issues
are grounds for some optimism.
257. It has been repeated so often that the nuclear-arms race and the
search for new weapons of mass destruction endanger mankind's
survival, that this very real threat is unfortunately in danger of
losing its persuasive power to bring about progress towards nuclear
disarmament. One pressing reality which cannot be denied or ignored
is that the astronomical sums spent each year on nuclear and
sophisticated conventional weapons fuel world inflation and obstruct
the establishment of amore just international economic order.
258. World inflation of course affects all States but its effects on
developing countries have been particularly cruel. Where in developed
countries inflation means the curtailment of luxuries, in the least
developed it often t leans deprivation of the necessities of life.
For the (ïeast developed, many of which, like Somalia, suffer from
natural and man-made disasters, the enormous debt problems caused by
inflation, the worsened conditions of trade and the drop in
development assistance have been catastrophic.
259. It is no doubt true that, except in the case of a few relatively
prosperous developed countries, the development goals to which the
United Nations membership is committed have never been so far from
achievement as at the present time, when we have already entered the
Third United Nations Development Decade.
260. My Government joins in calling on the developed countries to
co-operate in the launching of global negotiations-an initiative
which could give new impetus to the implementing of established
development goals. The steadily increasing gap between rich and poor
countries cannot be in the interest of peace with progress. We hope
it win be understood that the economic arrangement of the past cannot
justly serve the needs of an interdependent world, that the peace and
stability so desperately need\ d today go hand in hand with economic
growth and, finality that it will be for the benefit of all if the
poorer countries are helped to develop their resources to the point
where they in turn can contribute to a prosperous world economy.
261. In conclusion 1 should like to observe that, while there is
undoubted cause for deep concern over the inability of the United
Nations to solve inter-national political problems, it is important
that the blame for this situation be ascribed not to the Organization
and the Charter but to those who treat the obligations of membership
with indifference, neglect or contempt and who are prepared to
su1pport the world body only when its decisions conform to their
interest. As the Secretary-General points out in his report, in the
context of the peaceful settlement of disputes, we site lack a
binding sense of international community believe, however, that a
sense of inter-national community has developed through the
wide-ranging achievements of the United Nations in social, economic
and humanitarian fields.
262. As the agenda shows, the responsibilities under-taken by the
international community under the aegis of the United Nations range
from the sea-bed to outer space. The nexus of relationships and
responsibilities established in less political fields will not easily
be broken. In the last resort the United Nations remains an
unparalleled centre for international diplomacy and mankind's best
hope for peace.