Gambia

I should like on behalf of the Government of the Gambia and my entire delegation to express warm congratulations to Mr. Hollai on his accession to the high office of President of the General Assembly at this session. His broad diplomatic experience and his distinguished professional record admirably equip him to preside over the affairs of the Assembly, and my delegation has every confidence in his ability to guide the deliberations of the thirty-seventh session to a successful and effective conclusion. May I take this opportunity to pay a tribute to his distinguished predecessor, Mr. Kittani of the fraternal Republic of Iraq, who with untiring dedication and commitment discharged the responsibilities conferred upon him at the thirty-sixth session. I wish also to congratulate the fifth Secretary-General, Mr. Perez da Cuellar, on his elevation to his important position and to welcome him to the first regular session of the General Assembly that he has attended in his new capacity. In the successive crises that have beset the world community in recent months the Secretary- General has been indefatigable in his efforts to promote the cause of peace, to which the United Nations is dedicated. This formal dedication notwithstanding, and in spite of the sacred principles to which all signatories to the Charter of the United Nations have pledged their solemn commitment, the evolution of the international political situation in the past year suggests that the cause of peace has not been uppermost in our collective mind. Instead, tensions have smouldered and proliferated, and on too many occasions erupted into armed conflict. The thirty-seventh session of the General Assembly is therefore commencing its important work at a time of acute and widespread crisis ominously reminiscent of that dark era which preceded the global cataclysm of 1939 to 1945, from whose ashes the Organization emerged. The state of crisis confronting the international community is epitomized by the grave situation which has continued to prevail in southern Africa in stubborn defiance of international public opinion. Through the policy of apartheid, which has been rightly condemned as a crime against humanity, South Africa has succeeded in institutionalizing racial discrimination on a scale unique in history. Under that odious system some 20 million non-whites are routinely and systematically denied even the most fundamental of human freedoms. In recent years the South African authorities have attempted to convince the international community that, in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, they are both willing and able to introduce gradual though meaningful reform. However, as has been demonstrated by the fanfare of publicity surrounding the establishment of a Presidential Advisory Council, on which the black population is not even represented, change is not in the nature of the beast. The absence of any constitutional provision for peaceful change has compelled the oppressed black population to resort to armed struggle. At this point I wish to reaffirm my Government's unwavering solidarity with the African population of that tortured land in its legitimate struggle to gain those rights we consider to be inalienable. In this connection my delegation wishes to pay a particular tribute to and to express its unequivocal support for the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress in their just and heroic struggle for freedom, justice and human dignity. The international community and the United Nations in particular face another grave challenge in Namibia, the Territory originally entrusted to South Africa under a League of Nations Mandate in 1919. Disregarding the formal revocation of this Mandate in 1966, the Pretoria regime has by unilateral decision extended its jurisdiction and administration over the Territory, whose vast mineral resources it continues, with the collaboration of foreign economic interests, to exploit for its own use. At the same time it has transformed Namibia into a forward base for repeated acts of aggression against independent African States in the region. In spite of the clear consensus within the international community, the competent organ of the United Nations, the Security Council, has been unable to apply the appropriate measures spelled out in Chapter VII of the Charter. Predictably, such indulgence, far from encouraging South Africa to comply with international norms, has instead prompted further breaches of international peace and security. As a result, the independent nations of the region, from neighbouring Angola to the far flung Seychelles islands, have become permanent targets of the racist regime and are subjected daily to subversion, infiltration and open invasion by South Africa. In March 1978 the Namibian people, in a commendable demonstration of statesmanship and compromise, endorsed through their sole and authentic representative, SWAPO, the settlement plan formulated by the Western contact group. The plan was subsequently accepted by South Africa and adopted by the Security Council under its resolution 435 (1978). Since that time, however, no progress has been made towards the independence of Namibia. Instead, South Africa has invented one pretext after another to delay its withdrawal from this illegally occupied Territory. The latest of these manoeuvres is the current attempt to link the independence of Namibia to certain extraneous factors. South Africa's continued intransigence is a direct affront to the authority of the United Nations and further undermines the credibility of the Organization. Any modification of the existing framework of negotiation would gravely compromise the authority of the Security Council. In this regard the position of the Government of the Gambia remains that resolution 435 (1978) constitutes the sole and immutable basis for the independence of Namibia. The situation in southern Africa is matched only by the grave situation in the Middle East, which has now escalated to critical proportions with dire implications for international peace and security. Here, too, the United Nations faces an important and historic challenge. Although the will of the international community has been clearly articulated in the successive resolutions of the Assembly, recognizing and reaffirming the inalienable rights of the sons and daughters of Palestine to self-determination and independent statehood, no progress has been made towards the achievement of these basic freedoms. In the occupied territories, the Palestinian population remains subjected to a campaign of systematic repression, under which the most peaceful protests are met with brute force. This campaign, which has spared neither school-children nor the elderly, attained epidemic proportions in March of this year. In June of this year the international community witnessed with indignation and revulsion the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the latest episode in the seemingly endless saga of Israeli aggression. My Government reiterates its condemnation of this criminal invasion, which not only violates the most fundamental principles of the Charter and international law, but will remain for years a blot on the conscience of the civilized world. Ignoring the successive resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly calling for Israel's withdrawal to the internationally recognized borders of Lebanon, the invading army continued its relentless advance through Lebanon. The bloody Israeli advance culminated in the ten-week siege of the capital, Beirut, during which the civilian population was subjected to a veritable holocaust. I wish at this juncture to express the total solidarity of the Government and people of the Gambia with the courageous struggle of the Palestinian people, under the heroic leadership of its sole and authentic representative, the PLO. Still reeling from the surrealistic horror of this murderous siege, the world community has reacted with outrage and disbelief to the recent Sabra and Shatila massacres, in which more than 1,500 Palestinian civilians, mainly women and children, were murdered in cold blood. The Gambia strongly and unequivocally condemns these genocidal atrocities and urges a full investigation into the organization and execution of this crime against humanity, in accordance with General Assembly resolution ES-7/8, adopted at the seventh emergency special session, devoted to the question of Palestine. Despite the global consensus on the futility of armed force to resolve disputes, the shadow of war continues to darken the horizon on every continent. The second special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament, in which legitimately high hopes were placed, proved a major disappointment. Although successive government leaders and plenipotentiaries expressed unanimous awareness of and concern for the grave dangers which the accelerating arms race and the ever-increasing threat of a nuclear apocalypse pose for the future of mankind, the Assembly was unable, after five weeks of deliberation, to agree upon a comprehensive programme of disarmament. The ramifications of this diplomatic failure extend far beyond the confines of this hallowed building. They are symptomatic of a more global malaise. This phenomenon is characterized most notably by the absence of the necessary political will to renounce the use of force in international disputes in favour of peaceful negotiation. Indeed, with disturbing frequency the established framework and procedure for the peaceful settlement of disputes have been bypassed, while nations have resorted to brute force to achieve political objectives. The dispute over the Falkland Islands, which culminated in a full-scale war with catastrophic consequences for both parties to the conflict, is a classic example of this syndrome. Pursuant to the provisions of the Charter on self-determination and the non-use of force in the settlement of disputes, the position of the Gambia regarding this dispute is that the status of the Falkland Islands should be peacefully determined on the basis of the freely expressed wishes of the inhabitants of the territory. In the Persian Gulf, meanwhile, the fratricidal conflict between two Islamic States has raged for too long, inflicting considerable loss of lives and immeasurable damage to property, not to mention the staggering financial costs of the war itself, now estimated to have exceeded $30 billion. As a member of the Mediation Committee established by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, my Government has since 1980 participated actively in a number of initiatives aimed at achieving a settlement of this most regrettable dispute. Unfortunately, these assiduous efforts have not yet borne fruit. The Security Council has meanwhile issued repeated calls for a cessation of hostilities, in favour of negotiations. It is the earnest hope of my delegation that the conflicting parties may respond positively to the most recent of these appeals, launched only last week under resolution 522 (1982). In the same region, the illegal occupation of Afghanistan by some 100,000 foreign troops has persisted, in violation of the cardinal principles of self- determination and non-intervention, and in defiance of the clear will of the international community in general and the Moslem world in particular. Loyal to their tradition of militant resistance to foreign domination, which stretches back in history to the era of the Persian Empire, the Afghan people have engaged in the heroic defence of their homeland from the new invader. The hostilities have, however, precipitated the mass exodus of some 2 million Afghans who have sought refuge in neighbouring Pakistan, placing an intolerable strain upon the economy of that country. The Gambia has been following and wishes to commend the efforts of the Secretary-General's Personal Representative for Afghanistan, Mr. Diego Cordovez, aimed at a political settlement of the situation in Afghanistan. In this connection, my Government cautiously welcomes the "package of understandings" which is reported to have emerged from his most recent consultations with the interested parties. In South-East Asia, the protracted occupation of Kampuchea by 200,000 foreign troops continues to deprive the Khmer people of its inalienable right to self-determination. The presence and operations of this army of occupation have forced an estimated 250,000 Khmers to die into neighbouring Thailand. In addition, the ongoing hostilities between nationalist forces and the army of occupation have repeatedly spilled across the Thai-Kampuchea frontier. In view of the considerable tension which this has created on the border, the continued incursions into Thailand by foreign troops stationed in Kampuchea clearly pose a grave threat to regional peace and security. My Government wishes meanwhile to register its support for the establishment on 22 June 1982 of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, under the presidency of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. It is our considered view that this crystallization of the various Khmer nationalist tendencies will make an important contribution towards the re-establishment of Kampuchea's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is the sinister course along which the international political situation has evolved over the past year. During this period of acute and protracted crisis which has shaken the community of nations to its foundations, the Gambia has striven consistently to promote peace, understanding and cooperation between States, both at the regional and international levels. Soon after the Gambia became independent in 1965, in recognition of the geo-ethnic and cultural ties that bind our two countries and peoples, the Gambia and Senegal signed a Treaty of Association within whose framework a Senegal-Gambian Secretariat was established to promote economic and socio-cultural co-operation between the two countries. The agreement establishing the Senegambia Confederation, signed by the Presidents of the two countries on 17 December 1981, evolved from the close and mutually beneficial co-operation which has always characterized relations between the Gambia and Senegal, since the Gambia attained nationhood. The instruments by which the respective Parliaments of the two sister States have ratified this Agreement have already been deposited with the Secretary- General of the United Nations, and some of the protocols for the implementation of the Agreement have been signed and ratified. It is our fervent hope that this significant step in the bilateral co-operation between the Gambia and Senegal will serve as a shining example for other African nations to emulate in our drive towards a united Africa. In the face of the unjust conditions in which the present international economic system operates, the adoption of the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade did not only usher in a new era of hope for developing countries; it represents, in my delegation's view, an important milestone in the relations between developed and developing countries as it incorporates, in terms of structural and institutional changes, the concept of interdependence between North and South. However, the alarming rate at which the world economy continues to deteriorate, the widening wealth-gap between developed and developing countries and the little progress that has so far been achieved in the establishment of the new international economic order, constitute ample testimony to the fact that our partners in the North have still to summon the political will fundamental to the implementation and success of the Strategy. With regard to trade and development, notwithstanding the progress achieved in this area within the framework of UNCTAD, including the Agreement Establishing the Common Fund for Commodities which is still not fully operational, and the adoption of rules to regulate restrictive business practices, developing countries continue to contend with the serious effects of spiralling world-wide inflation, inequitable terms of trade and phenomenal recession, as well as escalating protectionist measures in industrialized countries directed mainly against the finished products exported by developing countries. We have, therefore, been persistent in our call for the adoption by developed countries of more liberal trade policies and the dismantling of artificial trade barriers, so as to allow goods exported by developing countries greater access to the markets of developed countries. The sixth session of UNCTAD once again provides the international community with another opportunity for effective action permanently to stem these imbalances and we fervently hope that no effort will be spared towards the attainment of this objective. The urgent need to restructure the international monetary system so as to increase its responsiveness to the needs and development problems of developing countries not only poses a formidable challenge to the North-South dialogue but also constitutes one of the main stumbling-blocks to the launching of the global negotiations. The prevailing international monetary system established at Bretton Woods after the Second World War and prior to the "wind of change" catered exclusively to the interests of the industrialized countries without taking due cognizance of the needs of developing countries, the majority of which had not yet become independent. It is no wonder, therefore, that the developing countries continue to demand, albeit unsuccessfully, that the international monetary institutions be democratized and redesigned with a view to promoting the economic and social progress of developing countries in the interests of both North and South. Indeed, in a number of positive ways, the International Meeting on Co-operation and Development, held at Cancun in 1981 could not have been more timely. The developing countries, and the Independent Commission on International Development Issues, under the chairmanship of Willy Brandt, which proposed it, had hoped that agreement would be reached at the Cancun meeting on the launching of the global round, thereby breaking the North-South stalemate and demonstrating the international community's commitment to the resolution of the multifarious problems impeding the economic development of developing countries. Regrettably, the disappointing conclusions of the Cancun meeting dealt another shattering blow to the aspirations of developing countries, as some developed countries represented at the meeting were simply unprepared to endorse the proposals which constitute the central theme of the global negotiationsóthe restructuring of the international monetary system, raw materials, and United Nations targets for official development assistance. It is now an established fact that industrialization is a sine qua non for the accelerated development of developing countries. Regrettably, however, the attainment of the objective of 25 per cent of world industrial output by the turn of the century set for developing countries in the Lima Declaration and Plan of Action on Industrial Development and Co-operation is far from being realized, since the share of the developing countries in world industrial production is only 12 per cent. It is equally disappointing that only $15 million has so far been pledged to the United Nations Industrial Development Fund as compared to the desired level of $50 million. The low level of contribution to the Fund makes it virtually impossible for UNIDO to expand its programmes and activities to a level that would enhance the industrialization efforts of developing countries. The Industrial Development Board, at its sixteenth session again underlined the slow rate of industrial growth in the third world, especially in Africa, and recommended among other things the strengthening of UNIDO's activities, in particular in areas relating to the transfer of industrial technologies, and in the exchange of experience gained in the establishment of industrial infrastructures, to energy-related industrial technology and industrial development, and to management training. In this connection, the proposal by UNIDO to establish an international bank for industrial development is certainly a welcome initiative. Provided that, following its establishment, the bank is accorded the needed support in terms of capital and resource availability on an assured basis, it should contribute significantly to promoting industrial growth in the third world. Largely because of the lack of enthusiasm and political will on the part of developed countries, developments in the field of science and technology have been equally disappointing in terms of the slow implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action on Science and Technology for Development. Contributions to the United Nations Interim Fund for Science and Technology for Development amounted to only $50 million instead of the target of $250 million envisaged in the Programme of Action adopted at Vienna. One cannot overemphasize the importance of the operational plan for the implementation of the Vienna Programme and of the comprehensive recommendations contained in the report of the Intergovernmental Group on the United Nations Financing System for Science and Technology for Development. The Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology for Development should therefore exert every effort to finalize negotiations on these recommendations and on the International Code of Conduct on the Transfer of Technology. The energy problem continues to constitute a major factor in the present world economic crisis. The phenomenal increase in oil prices over the past eight years makes it urgently necessary to adopt a comprehensive world energy policy and to promote the expansion and diversification of conventional and non-conventional energy sources. It was with this in view and with the intention of seeking measures to deal with the persistent oil crisis and the attendant serious problems it poses to international economic development that the United Nations Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy was convened at Nairobi in August 1981. The Conference adopted the Nairobi Programme of Action for the Development and Utilization of New and Renewable Sources of Energy designed to ensure a sustained supply of energy from both conventional and non-conventional sources, including small-scale rural projects, the development of indigenous energy sources and research into new and renewable energy technologies. The World Bank has already estimated that on an annual basis oil-importing developing countries would need a minimum of $50 billion to develop their domestic energy resources. In this connection, the Government of the Gambia welcomes the proposed World Bank energy affiliate to finance energy development in developing countries and trusts that the proposal will materialize in the very near future. We attach equal importance to the work of the intergovernmental Committee on the Development and Utilization of New and Renewable Sources of Energy, established to mobilize the volume of resources needed for the implementation of the Nairobi Programme of Action and look forward to the successful accomplishment of its important task. The problem of hunger and malnutrition today constitutes the most serious and fundamental problem that developing countries are confronted with. The food situation in the majority of developing countries has become absolutely intolerable, particularly in Africa, where, because of severe and prolonged drought conditions in the Sahel, the situation has reached alarming proportions. This situation has been further exacerbated by the international community's failure to reach either the minimum target of 10 million tons of grain per year established under the Food Aid Convention of 1980 or the minimum target of 500,000 tons of grain to stock the International Emergency Food Reserve. The need for a substantial increase in contributions to the World Food Programme has never been more urgent, and the international community should, as a matter of urgency, exert every effort, not only towards meeting the targets envisaged in the Food Aid Convention and for the International Emergency Food Reserve, but also towards implementing the FAO Five-Point Plan of Action on World Food Security." Equally important is the replenishment of the resources of the International Fund for Agricultural Development to enable the Fund to maintain and even expand its efforts to promote increased food production and strengthen the agricultural infrastructure of developing countries. The decision of the International Monetary Fund to establish a food window to assist low-income countries in correcting the imbalance of their balance of payments resulting from cereal imports is certainly a step in the right direction. Notwithstanding that, concerted efforts should also be made towards recycling the substantial food surpluses in the developed countries. The declining level of concessional resources available for multilateral operational activities is a source of serious concern to the Gambian Government. In the case of UNDP, for example, the financial commitments made so far have fallen far short of the minimum average annual growth of 14 per cent in voluntary contributions envisaged for the third programming cycle, 1982 to 1986. The Administrator of UNDP revealed a few days ago in a statement at the 4th meeting of the Second Committee that for the first year of the cycle, the Programme will not even have sufficient resources to enable it to deliver up to 60 per cent of the indicative planning figures envisaged in decision 80/30 of the UNDP Governing Council. Indeed, the entire United Nations development system is lumbered with the same bleak prospects of resource availability and, unless there is a dramatic about tum, the devastating effects of the waning resource prospects on the operational activities of the United Nations development system will hardly bear contemplation. It is particularly disturbing that following the adoption of the Substantial New Programme of Action for the 1980s for the Least Developed Countries in Paris last year, the good will and enthusiasm so amply demonstrated in Paris is yet to be matched by firm commitments in terms of resources for the early implementation of the Substantial New Programme of Action. Today, we are living in a world in which some of the most basic needs for survival are virtually non-existent for the majority of mankind as chronic poverty and squalor become increasingly prevalent. For those of us from the least developed countries, which constitute the world's poorest sector, the situation has become absolutely unbearable. It is hardly necessary to remind the international community that the problems of poverty constitute the greatest threat to international peace and security. Let us, therefore, through unity of action, guarantee our collective survival by giving practical expression to our solemn pledge to the Organization to mould a more assured and acceptable future for mankind. In our pursuit of this crucial objective, I pledge the total support and co- operation of the Government and people of the Gambia.