Colombia

On taking the floor in this great world forum, I am overwhelmed by respect and awe — respect for the distinguished and able representatives of 100 countries assembled in this hall, and awe at the magnitude and gravity of the problems which demand the attention of the United Nations and are a source of concern to all the peoples of the world 28. I come to this world rostrum to reaffirm Colombia's faith in the structural principle of the San Francisco Charter and the American regional organization, since those principles coincide in the will to ensure the rule of peace founded on social progress, freedom and justice. 29. Because of its long legal tradition going back to the origins of its nationhood, Colombia must always speak the clear and honest language of harmony. This unalterable rule of our domestic and external conduct is imposed by our way of thought, our convictions of principle, our political customs, and the influence of our Christian culture. My country also understands that a nation which obviously is not a military, industrial or economic power must act in the international area with the simplicity and/discretion dictated by its! own limitations. I come to bring to this Assembly a message of peace from 15 million Colombians who have confidence in the good sense of their fellow men, and to voice our faith and hope in the prosperous future of our peoples. 30. I do not deny that in international affairs, on exceptional occasions, insuperable problems not open to reasonable solution may arise but may I be permitted to say that, in Colombia's opinion, all the problems which today threaten world peace can and must be settled by peaceful means. The questions of Berlin, German reunification, Laos, Cuba, South Viet-Nam, the suspension of nuclear tests and general disarmament do not properly belong to an exceptional category of insoluble problems. They can all be settled through the application of political remedies. Some are more explosive than others, but all are manageable within a certain order of priorities. 31. Naturally, Colombia is aware that often the best of peaceful intentions are frustrated by the barriers which States themselves have erected in their path in their dangerous and unrestrained conduct of the cold war. It is well known that, under the laws of the cold war, any act indicating a will peace may be taken as a sign of weakness or vacillation; and it is not impossible that, through the vain desire of States to demonstrate that neither weakness nor vacillation exists, the world may be plunged into the maelstrom of inevitable destruction. 32. The United Nations is capable of finding common ground between the Powers and of advocating fair and reasonable solutions which will smooth the stony road which mankind is travelling. Surely, through the machinery of the United Nations compromise solutions can be found to restore mankind's faith in its destiny and in its survival. Within the United Nations many countries that have been mere spectators or victims of the world drama may become actors and the creators of a new era of peace and progress. 33. Bat since in the struggle to free mankind from-the scourge of a new military conflict we have necessarily to use the forum of the United Nations, let us begin by strengthening and facilitating United Nations action and not by obstructing or weakening it. Problems of the magnitude of those which now beset us cannot be easily resolved if the crisis of the office of the Secretary-General resulting from the tragic death of its distinguished and able incumbent, is allowed to continue. We must and an expert collaborator who, like Mr. Hammarskjold, will help us to overcome the difficulties in the way of peace. ' 34. My country has examined the Soviet proposal for a plural Secretary-General and considers it undesirable because it would introduce an additional disturbing element into the functioning of an organization which must work more speedily and with absolute unity of action. The interpretation of an order from the General Assembly or the Security Council on the basis of three different criteria will obviously result in the paralysis of the world Organization. The principal objection to a plural Secretary-General is that, if it were adopted, She office of Secretary-General would lose its executive capacity and would be transformed into another deliberative organ of the United Nations. 35. My country believes in the world Organization and realizes that it is the last guarantee for peace. In the sixteen years of its existence the United Nations has performed extraordinary services and has prevented the outbreak of general war. This alone would justify its existence, even if there were not many other weighty reasons to acknowledge the magnitude and the efficacy of the work it has accomplished. 36. The economically less developed countries have already begun to profit from the technical and financial aid of the specialized agencies and hope to receive more intensive and significant assistance when the great Powers allocate aid for under-developed countries even a small percentage of the huge sums now diverted to a break-neck armaments race. 37. The United Nations may not serve interests other than the cause of peace, nor acknowledge a discipline other than its own. It was not established to regiment thought but rather to stimulate debate and to seek the truth through the calm consideration of opposing positions. But debate must not become an obstruction that would weaken the raison d'etre of this great Organization. 38. At the same time the United Nations while serving as a bulwark against war, affords the small countries an opportunity to share unique and tremendous responsibilities with the great Powers. If this forum did not exist, it is probable that the world would be conquered by a few countries and mankind would be subjected to appalling tyrannies. In the United Nations we find solutions for our problems, satisfaction of our needs, and a platform on which we may express our concern. 39. In the belief that all the machinery of the United Nations should be strengthened, my country will support the proposal for an increase in the membership of the Security Council and of the Economic and Social Council. This increase will enable the new countries to obtain the representation to which they are justly entitled, without reducing the representation on these bodies now allotted to the various regional blocs. The doors of all bodies must be opened to our new colleagues. They have demonstrated their ability and have won the respect of the General Assembly, which is honoured today by the presence in the chair of Mr. Slim, a distinguished African possessing outstanding human and intellectual qualities.| 40. The international conduct of my country is based on clear principles derived from its undeniably democratic character, its respect for the law and its veneration for freedom. My country cannot remain silent in the face of any violation of human rights, and must therefore raise its voice in protest against the inhuman racial discrimination which although expressly prohibited by the United Nations, has long been practised in South Africa. It is inadmissible in the present age that this bitter racial conflict should afflict the world. The coexistence of sons of the same country must precede the coexistence of nation^ My country is determined to support any positive United Nations action which will radically correct these acts which are repugnant to its humanitarian conscience. 41. Similarly, our republican heritage compels us to recognize that the self-determination of peoples is obviously inconsistent with colonialism. The indefinite prolongation of the colonial system is not in keeping with the spirit of freedom which now determines the destiny of the world, and is undoubtedly a factor disturbing the peace. 42. The noble example of the United Kingdom, which won the war and dissolved its empire, is further evidence of the political maturity of a great people, We are in favour of plebiscite arrangements to provide peoples with a means of exercising the right of self- determinations. 43. We believe that the same criterion must be employed to promote the reunification of those peoples whose division is persistently encouraged; for example, those who assert the principle of self- determination in the case of some peoples while denying one part of the German people the right freely to decide its own future cannot escape the charge of demagogy. 44. The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic have indissoluble links. A long common past, going back to the dawn of history, must inevitably outweigh the artificial division of the last sixteen years. Hence, when Mr. Gromyko describes the Federal German Republic as revenge-seeking, in order to justify his country's unwillingness to permit the self-determination of a people divided against its will, he is being completely arbitrary. 45. This year the General Assembly has seen fit to place the item of representation of China on its agenda, My country accepted this decision, but it has not changed its view of the qualifications that should be possessed by States seeking to enter this Organization. In Colombia's view, it is essential that every new Member of the United Nations should prove by deeds rather than by words its intention to serve the interests of peace and to abide by the principles of the Charter. 46. The question of the representation of China, Which the Assembly will discuss at this session, is not an ancillary or procedural matter, for it implies a substantive decision. We believe that this is a question which under the provisions of Article 18 of the United Nations Charter , must be resolved by a two- thirds majority, since it involves more than a mere decision concerning credentials. 47. The most recent nuclear tests have produced a worldwide reaction, of which the resolution approved by the Belgrade Conference of Non-Aligned States is a good example. All peoples feel that they are now closer than at any other time in their history to the inexpressible horrors of general war. The continuation of nuclear tests might create an even greater state of alarm and fear , which would necessarily affect our proceedings. There seems to be every indication that world anxiety would be greatly relieved, and the United Nations would be able to work with greater confidence, if priority were given in the Political Committee to the elaboration of an immediate treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons tests. 48. On the question of general disarmament, Considered independently of that of nuclear tests, pessimism would be out of place since the joint statement of the United States and the Soviet Union, which has been widely circulated in this Assembly, indicates that there is a welcome area of agreement. The reaffirmation by the two greatest world Powers of their desire to initiate a programme of general and complete disarmament, guaranteeing that States will maintain only the conventional arms needed to maintain internal order and to protect the lives of their citizens, is in our judgement one of the most promising pieces of news the people could receive. We cannot conceal our enthusiastic hope that this encouraging declaration will be endorsed by this Assembly. My country trusts that in the very near future agreement will be reached regarding the body through which these negotiations, which the world awaits with understandable anxiety, will be undertaken. 49. Like the other twenty countries of this hemisphere, Colombia is a member of the Organization of American States and has subscribed to the agreements and conventions that constitute the regional system. My country has undertaken multilateral commitments which bind it to the complex of political, economic and legal norms which serve as rules of international conduct for the continent. We have undertaken to assure the peace and to defend the freedom and sovereignty of the American nations against any dangers that threaten them. And we have agreed that respect for human rights and the political organization of States on the basis of the effective exercise of representative democracy are essential to the attainment of the purposes of our regional systems. 50. Similarly, in the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance of Rio de Janeiro, we undertook to repel extra-continental or intra-continental intervention directed against any American State, and to consider an attack against an American state as an act of aggression against all the American States. We do not belong to the "neutralist" category of countries; on the contrary, we are among those who have definite commitments to America and to the free world. However, none of the commitments we have assumed and which we are determined to fulfil is incompatible with the high aims of the United Nations; on the contrary, they are complementary. The Inter-American system was created to seek peaceful settlements to controversies that might arise among the American countries before such disputes were referred to the General Assembly or the Security Council. The regional organization, like the world Organization, is primarily a safeguard for weak peoples, for nations that cannot enforce their rights by themselves. 51. The effectiveness of the political and legal rules of the Inter-American system has been amply proved and recourse should be had to that system to ensure that our regional problems do not unnecessarily take up the; time of the General Assembly and the Security Council when there are still positive means of redress in the regional organization. When such problems are brought up prematurely for consideration in the United Nations, they only serve to encourage debates which inevitably involve the American continent in the cold war. This may well have been the case with the Cuban question, which Colombia desires to see dealt with and, we hope, resolved within the limits of the Inter-American conventions in force, with the participation of the regional organs best qualified to take specific measures whenever there is a threat to the peace and security of the hemisphere. 52. The principle of non-intervention is common to the American Organization and the United Nations, and the peace and security of nations are dependent on the faithful observance of this principle. The principle must be strengthened and surrounded by essential safeguards so that no country can cross its fragile frontiers with impunity. In order.* to ensure that this international precept may not be violated with dangerous impunity, my country considers it essential that the appropriate organs of the system 'should define all the acts of intervention which constitute aggression. 53. I am in a position to state that I do not know of any plan to harm Cuba; but I can also state that many countries of our hemisphere are agreed that they will not permit the Government of Cuba or any other Government to intervene directly or indirectly in the affairs of the other American States. We cannot accept a unilateral interpretation of the principle of non-intervention. International coexistence can be achieved only through mutual confidence and respect among peoples. 54. The countries of America have resolved to carry out a true social revolution in order and freedom. We know that many archaic social and economic structures must be transformed and adapted to the needs and requirements of our peoples. We will eliminate poverty and wipe out ill-health and illiteracy without having to pay for these gains with the inestimable treasure of freedom. Our revolution is a democratic revolution, which respects human rights and is eminently American. We want to give the people concrete and positive plans, and we shall resist the attempts of demagogues and reactionaries to poison the spirit of our revolution and to turn it in the direction of a bitter and irreconcilable class struggle. 55. To accomplish this urgent plan of economic and social development, the nations of American have committed themselves to the historic experiment in collective action, known as the "Alliance for Progress". President Kennedy, to whom Latin America owes a debt of gratitude, has been the chief architect of this new form of international co-operation which will make available to the peoples of this continent the wide benefits of progress and well-being. In order to give the men and women of America a better life in which the exploitation of poverty will be impossible, we are going to bring into action all the credit resources and technical machinery agreed upon at the Punta del Este Conference. Our decision to maintain democratic institutions in Americas been taken and is irrevocable. 56. If it strengthens its unity and co-ordinates its action, Latin America encompassing twenty countries and a population of 200 million inhabitants will be in a position to give a new and decisive assurance to the cause of peace, by promoting peaceful settlements and making its weight felt in the balance of world affairs. Today, when mankind is organized in ^powerful blocs, the political atomization of the nations of a particular geographic area may reduce them to impotence or make them incapable of fulfilling the lofty purposes of the world Organization. Happily, that is not our position nor will it be in the future, because we are united both by common interests and by the overriding need for common defence. 57. After assuring Mr. Slim once more of my country's satisfaction at his well-deserved election as President of the Assembly and congratulating Sierra Leone on its admission to membership in the World Organization, may I express once more Colombia1 s hope that the United Nations may in the next decade find adequate solutions to those questions which, As President Kennedy said [1013th meeting], will decide the fate of man for the next ten thousand years.