In this last quarter of the twentieth century,
the world is beset by upheavals which bode no
good. We are seeing a major deployment of arms,
to such an extent that a wise man of Africa
rightly said that today the weapons of death are
greater than those employed to ensure the
survival of humanity. Palestinian and Lebanese
peoples have been massacred by Israel, and the
racist regime in South Africa constitutes a
continuing challenge to humanity at large,
committing ever-increasing acts of arrogance and
destruction against the front-line States. One's
thoughts turn naturally to this painful question
for the universal conscience: is there still hope
of speaking of peace in a world of hatred?
180. As you are aware, Sir, you have acceded
to the post of President of the thirty-seventh
session of the Assembly at a critical moment for
humanity. The United Nations was created to
maintain and strengthen world peace, but today
that peace is threatened more than ever. Thus we
fully understand the complexity of your task.
Your country, Hungary, has more than once
experienced the complexity of events; therefore
we are confident that your out-standing qualities
as a seasoned diplomat, combined with your
experience, drawn from the age-old history of
your country, are assets that will enable you to
guide our work, by calming passions, and creating
the calm atmosphere essential to our
deliberations. It is therefore, my agreeable duty
to extend to you, both in my personal capacity
and on behalf of the delegation of Togo, my
heartfelt congratulations on your election to the
presidency of the thirty-seventh session of the
Assembly.
181. Your predecessor, Mr. President, did not
have an easy task. With rare distinction, he rose
above the general confusion and took a high
stance in presiding over the deliberations, both
those of the thirty-sixth session and those of
the special session held during the course of his
mandate. We extend to him our heartfelt
congratulations.
182. We have all benefited from the unflagging
concern of the Secretary-General, who, throughout
almost a year in office, has been an able
helmsman, a year in which our ship has crossed
some storm- tossed seas. In his report he
highlighted with characteristic sincerity the
causes of those storms which threatened the
existence of our States and our Organization. He
deserves all our congratulations and thanks.
183. The key word which describes the
international political situation this year is
"storm". Can we still talk of peace when daily
life is beset by war, assassination, kidnapping
and persecution? One cannot ask that question
without anguish, without despairing of the future
for peace in the world.
184. Without being an evangelist, one has a
clear impression that most of the conditions
listed in the Apocalypse are now present. Not a
day goes by without the teleprinters clattering
out dispatches announcing the cold-blooded murder
of innocent bystanders, or the explosion of a
bomb which has destroyed apartment buildings at
dawn while everyone was asleep or raids by racist
Powers to destroy the already fragile economic
infrastructures of developing countries, or the
outbreak of what is in fact war in this or that
country; the list is very long.
185. Invariably we return to the same
question: should we despair of the world at this
tumultuous end of the twentieth century? In other
words, is the peace so necessary to the union and
solidarity of peoples still possible? An
examination of the various crises which afflict
the world show that it is important to ask
ourselves that agonizing question.
186. At the international level, the world
economic crisis has reached a stage where an
explosion is possible at any moment. The
developing countries, emerging from the dark
period of decolonization, started on bold
programmes to revitalize their eco-nomies; but
then came the energy crisis; we still have the
aberrant system of the unequal trade; we still
have the absurd increase of interest rates
leading to the constant growth of the
indebtedness of the poor countries to others;
then there came the problem of the continual rise
of the dollar, so that all their debts calculated
in that currency are now quintupled, if not
worse. Thus the efforts that they undertook have
been cancelled out before having had any effect
on their standard of living, on health, or on the
level of education of their populations, which
remain the most deprived in the world.
187. Even in the industrialized countries, the
situation is no more encouraging. The crisis has
reached unforeseen proportions. Factories have
been closed and over 10 per cent of the
population is unemployed,
188. In the face of such a crisis, unless the
world takes care we will have the bitter surprise
of living through another 1929; that is to say, a
world crash which will hurl countries, all
countries, into a cataclysm leading to a system
rejected by mankind, one possibly worse than
nazism, which grew out of the 1929 crisis. Will
the rich come to their senses? For in such a
crisis none will be spared. Let us stop talking
of aid to the third world as if it were manna.
The rich countries, as they realize the danger of
a generalized crisis, must now understand that a
global policy towards the developing coun-tries
should be their main concern today. That global
policy must be to raise the prices of raw
materials, to stop any deterioration in the terms
of trade, to do away with protectionist barriers
in order to promote the trade of the developing
countries and to enhance industrial redeployment
and the transfer of technology, because there can
be no viable development without
industrialization. In ensuring an equitable
distribution of the riches produced by the labour
of all humanity, the rich countries will
guarantee their own survival. But the danger
would be great for all if the rich want to cling
to that selfish policy of every man for himself
which has produced poverty next door and a flood
of poverty-stricken people which breeds criminals
whose main concern is certainly not to guarantee
tranquillity and peace for other people.
189. The industrialized world possesses the
technology, whereas the young developing
countries have substantial natural resources. The
developed countries must know that it is the
complementarity of the technology of their
countries and the raw materials of the third
world that will produce the balance necessary for
peace in the world. If the rich manage to
understand the need for this co-operation, then
we may venture to talk of the possibilities of
peace in the world at the end of the twentieth
century.
190. Unfortunately, some States continue to
think that complementarity is synonymous with the
subjugation of the poorest to the richest of the
earth and do not hesitate to use force to violate
the independence and territorial integrity of
other States and to flout their fundamental
freedoms, disregarding the essential principles
governing relations among nations and causing
situations of tension, wars and destruction of
human lives.
191. Thus the tragedies suffered by the
peoples of the Middle East leave mankind
perplexed and very often, in view of the
absurdity of the massacres perpetrated by Israel,
we have no traction because we do not understand.
Indeed, about half a century ago, Hitler, on the
basis of nazism, decided to annihilate part of
mankind, the Jewish people. The nations of the
entire world, to a man, rose to prevent the
holocaust. And the Organization, through an
historic vote, decided quite rightly that the
Jewish people was entitled to a homeland, We fail
to understand how today the State of Israel can
refuse a homeland to another people, the
Palestinian people; we cannot understand today
how the Jewish people can have decided to
annihilate part of mankind, the Palestinian
people. Today, Beirut has been transformed by the
Government of Israel into a place of
extermination which oddly brings to mind certain
camps where the Jewish people were literally
massacred. Has that Government already forgotten
the horrors of Oradour and the extermination
perpetrated at Auschwitz? It is enough to cause
the human conscience to despair. There Ss a
double' standard, as has been quite rightly said
by a famous French writer: "Depending on whether
you are powerful or poor, the verdict of the
court will make you white or black." The most
elementary ethics seem not to exist for certain
people.
192. Togo, for its pact, in view of the
tragedy of the Middle East, has always supported
and continue; to support the principle of
negotiation, so that all peoples of the region
can have a homeland, the only condition for
guaranteeing peace and stability in the area.
193. From time to time Israel talks of
negotiation, but negotiation requires several
parties. If the side facing you is destroyed,
then you will be the only one at the negotiating
table and there can no longer be a question of
negotiation.
194. There can be no possible explanation for
the Beirut massacres. The Israeli population
itself no longer understands its political
leaders. The thousands of people killed were
civilians, women, children and the elderly. It
cannot even be said that those who were massacred
were combatants. The pretext of terrorism used by
Tel Aviv can no longer be taken seriously.
Nazism, in wanting to exterminate the Jewish
people, succeeded only in giving that people the
only weapon left to it: terrorism. Prime Minister
Begin has considerable experience of that and he
will certainly remember it. Today, the massacres
carried out against the Palestinian people have
compelled that people to scatter to the four
comers of the Middle East. By thus forcing the
Palestinian people into a Diaspora, does the
Government of Israel not see that it alone is
creating the conditions which force the
Palestinian people to use the only weapon left to
it, one used by the Jewish people to gain a place
under the sun, namely the weapon of terrorism? It
is regrettable that the experience of nazism did
not serve as a lesson. The mention of nazism
reminds us of the concentration camps and the
cremation ovens and we believe that the peoples
who subscribed to the Charter had once and for
all repudiated violence and killing as ways to
settle disputes among nations. Therefore our
conscience is sorely troubled by the savage
massacres of Shatila and Sabra, since Israel was
one of those which acceded to the Charter of San
Francisco. Therefore, the Government and people
of Togo join their voice in the general
condemnation of the crime of genocide and demand
that the responsibility of its perpetrators and
their accomplices be brought to light.
195. In passing, we salute the memory of those
martyrs who fell to the cowardly vengeance of
those who believe that the Israeli invasion of
foreign territories was the panacea for the
problem of the Middle East, whereas the reality
of the Palestinian fact is more than ever
compelling.
196. Still on the subject of the Middle East,
we note that two events have appeared recently
which give us a glimmer of hope, notwithstanding
the intransigence of the Government of Israel.
The first was the acceptance by Yasser Arafat of
the United Nations resolutions on the problems
of the Middle East in their entirety. At the same
time, the majority of the Arab countries are
moving progressively towards recognition of the
State of Israel. These elements, curiously,
instead of being viewed by Tel Aviv as positive
data, were played down by them. In a process of
belligerence we must not always want to bring
the adversary to his knees before envisaging any
negotiation. History is full of telling examples:
the Allies, in 1918 as in 1945, did not demand
that Germany change its Constitution before any
peace negotiations took place. The Allies
negotiated with Germany as it was and the
fundamental law creating the Federal Republic of
Germany, for example, was passed much later. It
is odd to lay down as a pre-condition to any
negotiation on the Middle East a complete
renunciation by the protagonist of ail his
principles, since the aim of negotiation is
precisely to obtain reciprocal renunciations of
positions.
197. The second event which provides a glimmer of hope was the change in
the attitude of the United States with regard to
that part of the world. Its positive vote in the
Security Council on resolution 521 (1982) on the
Lebanon massacre represents a meaningful dynamic
element. If these events can combine to create a
solution to the Middle East problem, then we may
venture to say that it is not too rash to talk of
the possibility, however minimal, of peace in the
Middle East, which has suffered for more than 30
years. The Palestine Liberation Organization
[PLO], the legitimate representative of the
Palestinian people, in committing itself behind
its leader Yasser Arafat to the realistic process
of peace, will once again furnish proof of its
maturity and acute sense of its responsibilities.
198. Can we still speak of peace at the end of
the twentieth century while we witness what is
happening in South Africa and Namibia? Pretoria
continues to defy humanity at large with
arrogance. By its dilatory manoeuvres Pretoria is
doing everything to hold up Namibia's
independence. Using the impunity it enjoys, the
Government of South Africa is bent on
systematically destroying the already fragile
infrastructures of the independent countries of
southern Africa. The repeated invasions of
Angolan territory perpetrated by the racist
troops of South Africa, the raids against the
territory of Mozambique and infiltrations into
Zimbabwe, Botswana and other front-line countries
constitute genuine acts of provocation.
199. The experience of the independence of
Zimbabwe where the leaders of that country,
after a struggle to recover their freedom,
managed to set up a multiracial regime and where
Zimbabweans co-exist whatever the colour of their
skin, is proof that Africa is capable in Namibia,
too, of facing its responsibilities in
accordance with its maturity. Therefore the fears
that South Africa claims to have that in Namibia,
under the direction of SWAPO, a non-democratic
regime might be established are only a manoeuvre
that does not fool anyone. Africa has already
given proof of its ability to transcend ethnic
differences. The majority of the Namibian people
under SWAPO is resolved to follow this
irreversible current of history to establish
State structures designed for harmonious
coexistence among the various social groups in
the country. Africa fights the apartheid system
and gives daily proof of its determination to see
that system eliminated from the planet.
200. It is therefore odd that it is the
champions of apartheid who dare to voice fears
about the possibilities of coexistence among the
various racial groups in Namibia. This is a
pretextóan ill-chosen one at thatówhich Pretoria
is using to perpetuate its domination over
Namibia. But the independence of that country is
inevitable. Pretoria's prevarications can do
nothing. Nothing will come of the South African
Government's attempts to destabilize the
front-line States. The combined efforts of
Africa, assisted by the gracious understanding of
the international community, will hasten
Namibia's independence. That is why we can state
that there is every hope that that country's
independence will become a reality soon. But the
sooner that independence comes the greater the
number of human lives that will be spared.
201. The agonizing question of whether we can
still hope for peace in this tormented world of
today arises when we take a look at the present
situation in Chad. Fortunately for that country,
we can say: yes, today peace and reconciliation
are possible in Chad.
202. Togo would like to express its
satisfaction publicly that for the first time in
17 years one can go to Chad without being greeted
with the gun-fire and explosions of the civil
war. The process of reconciliation has been
started to the satisfaction of all. Since the
which brought to the head of the State of Chad
the new President Hissein Habre in June 1982, the
desire of the leaders and political organizations
in Chad has been made manifestóresolutely to
commit themselves to a process of reconciliation
and peace. The late lamented Ahmat Acyl, former
Minister for Foreign Affairs of the now defunct
Transitional Government of National Union, had
stated that he favoured the peace and
reconciliation process advocated by President
Habre. He even wrote a long letter about this to
General Gnassingbe Eyadema, as Chairman of the
ad Hoc Committee on Chad. The brutal death of
Ahmat Acyl did not permit him to see that
initiative through to the end. But today the
situation has been normalized throughout the
territory of Chad after the whole southern part
of Chad rallied to that effort.
203. It is important that the international
community at large join in the ongoing process of
peace and reconciliation in Chad, rather than
engaging in rearguard action based on the
defence of unavowed interests which run counter
to those of the people of Chad. We make an appeal
to all States which cherish peace for them to do
all they can to participate in this endeavour of
national reconstruction.
204. The Middle East and Africa are not the
only flash-points in the world, but it would be
rash to attempt to review all conflict situations
which contain the seeds of a general breakdown of
world peace. However, we should mention the
tragedies of Afghanistan and Kampuchea where
people have been refused the right to
self-determination. Togo hopes nevertheless that
the coalition Government which has just been
established will finally bring to the people of
Kampuchea the peace for which it hopes.
205. At the beginning of July 1982 Togo was
host of the Governmental Conference of the Zone
of Africa for the Support of the Independent
Peaceful Reunification of Korea and we reaffirm
our solidarity with the Korean people. Our
Government supports the pro-posals made by the
great leader Kim 11 Sung to form the Democratic
Confederation of Korea. It is obvious that the
Korean people as a whole wants to see the
reunification of the country and is opposed to
any attempt that would lead to a perpetuation of
the two Koreas.
206. Finally, the Organization of African
Unity [6Mt/] recently lived through some serious
events which have given rise to doubts as to its
ability to surmount the gravest crisis in its
history. We believe that there also we can hope
for a solution to the OAU crisis for the sake of
the vitally needed world peace. Now combined
eventsóand not only the problems of the Sahraoui
Arab Republicóhave given rise to a grave crisis
within the OAU. We are convinced that African
wisdom will finally triumph. Were the Sahraoui
problem the only one, the Committee on self-
determination established by the OAU Assembly of
Heads of State and Government could find a
solution which would enable the nineteenth
session of the OAU Assembly to take place.
207. Togo is convinced that no African head of
State wants to see the OAU break up, and that
indeed no head of State of the international
community wants to see the OAU break up, because
it has shown how much it can contribute to peace
in the world. A crisis of growth after 20 years
is quite normal and it should not frighten us.
208. There will always be crises in the
international organizations. Indeed, my
delegation endorses the analysis of the
Secretary-General about the causes of the
ineffectiveness of the Organization, and which
explains the crisis we are undergoing, which has
unfortunately already broken out in the OAU.
209. While we accept that the present OAU
crisis is one of growth which will enable it to
gain further strength, we have serious doubts
about the future of the United Nations, which has
been in existence for almost 40 years. It is not
normal that at this age the Organization should
continue to see violated the fundamental
principles to which States have freely
subscribed. It is not normal that resolutions and
decisions of the Organization be flouted. The
profound upheavals in today's international life
have arisen from these violations.
210. It is important that all States examine
their conscience, not only about the principles
of the Charter but also about the scope and
implementation of United Nations resolutions and
decisions.
213.. My Government subscribes to the specific
proposal contained in the Secretary-General's
report for a meeting of the Security Council at
the highest level to discuss the question of
measures which might strengthen the effectiveness
of the Organization. Togo has more than once
shared its experience in the cause of peace, and
has participated in several mediation meetings;
it is convinced that the Secretary-General's
proposal can lead to action to enhance the
effectiveness of the Organization.
214. This is the price to be paid for the
maintenance of peace in the world, and we need
that peace to build a just and equitable society.
As General Gnassingbe Byadema, the
President-Founder of the Togo People's Party and
President of the Republic, has stated: "The
Togolese people cherishes for itself and all
nations a will for peace and progress. This peace
must be real and must lead to the effective
emancipation of our various nations. "That is why
we should like to make an appeal to the
international community to combine all its
efforts to build a world of peace, justice and
freedom.