89. Great hopes were placed in this session of the General Assembly. Its twentieth anniversary was to be the proof, as it were, of a capacity for survival, of which certain persons had for some time thought the Organization incapable. This hope seemed to be all the more justified by the fact that this year, our work was to proceed under the sign of international co-operation, an idea which necessarily supposes the abandonment of sterile confrontations and corresponds with the purpose of our Organization.
90. This, unfortunately, has not been the case. Extremely serious matters, having a direct bearing on the vitality and the very existence of the Organization, have not yet been settled and the difficulties they have revealed have weakened the enthusiasm of some and the patience of others. International events, which have had dangerous repercussions on the Organization’s activities, have seriously damaged the balance of the relations which ensured its harmony.
91. It is true that there is an awareness on all sides of the risk to which these converging difficulties expose our Organization, and international opinion realizes the fulfil extent of the abyss in which the world community would again find itself if ulterior motives or certain calculations were to prevail over the imperatives of real responsibility.
92. You, Mr. President, have already reflected this awareness and expressed these concerns in your opening address to the General Assembly [1286th meeting]. You did so, indeed, with that relevance which has always characterized your approach to and analysis of complicated problems, with a profound knowledge of the apparent and hidden realities of the Organization and with the authority of your experience, which your colleagues, all of whom are your friends, have honoured by choosing you, in all confidence, to preside over our General Assembly.
93. On one occasion, when you were welcoming me to the presidency of the Security Council, which was to examine a situation painful for Africa, you were kind enough to remark that destiny had chosen the representative of Morocco to conduct the discussions on those matters. The Assembly will understand why I remark with feeling that today destiny has chosen a distinguished African to conduct the work of this session on which the future of the Organization and the harmonious coexistence of its Members undoubtedly depend. To my country’s sincere wishes for your success, I add my own fervent prayer that your action will remove the remaining obstacles and bend the course of events in the direction for which we all hope.
94. This hope is, first of all, that the financial crisis of the United Nations will soon be overcome. It has been rightly said that it is perhaps easier to find the necessary funds to meet the debts and deficits of the United Nations than to secure agreement between the various positions of principle. Everyone, here or elsewhere, knows that the strictly financial obligations of the debtor Members are not beyond their means or possibilities. The flexibility of their national legal traditions and frequently even the part they have played in affirming international law would have allowed them to go beyond the legal grounds for their attitude even though in some respects the latter may be strictly correct. What is at stake in such a confrontation goes beyond the requirements attached to considerations of doctrine, intellectually valid in other circumstances but particularly dangerous when rigorous application would very probably lead to the dislocation of the only instrument of co-operation that the world community has ever been able to establish.
95. Considerations of prestige have been added to positions of principle, thus aggravating the difficulty and complicating the efforts to find a solution. We can understand that the great Powers may have a scale of priorities in which legal exactitude and reasons of self-esteem rule out any compromise. We also agree that they can by their own means and their own individual power protect their independence, security and interests. But the poorer, weaker States cannot understand that a lawyer’s insistence on his thesis may deprive them of the only body which guarantees their sovereignty and protects all the interests they have with difficulty regained and legitimately wish to preserve.
96. In intervening in the Congo in 1960, the United Nations acted in accordance with the Charter, and its action, in all its various aspects, correspond faithfully to its role and its purpose. I do not want to revert to the details of a painful quarrel, but it is beyond question that the events in the Congo in 1960 were not the deed of the secondary Powers. All the great Powers said with a sincerity accepted in good faith, that the peace and security of the world were directly threatened at that time. A large majority of the Member countries contributed, in one way or another, some at the cost of great sacrifice, to this action, which was unanimously acknowledged to be imperative, useful and correct.
97. The vicissitudes encountered in the course of that action were such as might cause any great Power to readjust its political opinions. They could not invalidate the moral responsibility of previous decisions, still less the consequences of every sort which that responsibility entailed. The African countries were — and still are — the chief direct victims of those disappointments. Most of them, however, have abided by their original commitments, and the maintenance of peace in the Congo has cost their homeland lives, and their Treasury valuable resources, and has been a matter of great anxiety to them.
98. The privilege of being a great Power should preclude the liberty of regarding oneself as the sole judge of the validity of a given interpretation in certain circumstances and of another interpretation in different circumstances. At the international as at the individual level, the first duty of the elder is to set a good example.
99. Faced with the difficulties resulting from these contradictions, the small Powers have been sufficiently realistic not to restrict themselves to the logical deductions resulting from the strict analysis of a changing situation. They have considered the political factors, which cannot be disregarded in the present state of the problem. In bilateral contacts, in the Group of Twenty-One and in the Group of Twelve, their efforts have been free from bitterness and, whatever the result of their work, they will have helped to clarify a situation in which confusion has sometimes been deliberately maintained.
100. Mr. President, the statement that you made to the General Assembly on 18 January on this question [1315th meeting] shows, whatever one may think, that your action, combined with the efforts I have mentioned, has reduced many differences and should, without undue optimism, permit resumption of a dialogue, either direct or through the Secretary-General, between the Powers whose views have apparently not yet been reconciled.
101. The latter approach, using the fund of goodwill amassed on both sides, may perhaps produce a most meritorious international impetus and may provide the most valid proof of the confidence that the Members of the Organization have placed in it in this year of international co-operation.
102. The problem of the Congo, however, remains undiminished. The last twenty or so meetings of the Security Council on this matter have revealed the full extent of its complexity. Foreign interference, which we tried to prevent in 1960 at the cost of a crisis the last act of which has not yet been played, has now resumed in the Congo in a more direct form and no attempt is being made to justify it by sheltering behind euphemisms. The struggle between internal factions has reopened the way to competing interests and to the struggle of ideological influence. Africa itself has not maintained the lucidity and composure it displayed in 1960 and has participated in the interference at the risk of accentuating some forms of penetration in a desire to avoid others.
103. Morocco's position in this matter continues to be determined by respect for the Congo's sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-interference in its domestic affairs. As a member of the Security Council, Morocco has reached the level of international responsibility that its membership of that body demands. It has refused to yield to facile demagogy, because its conception of international responsibility and of African solidarity will not allow it to fulfil the former or give proof of the latter by attitudes inspired by the present situation. Our view of Africa's future destiny and of its part in the future of the world community has led us to choose the narrow way. We have not had to wait long to experience the satisfaction of having been right, as is testified by the tributes paid to our delegation by the partisans of the various trends within the Security Council, by the spokesman for Africa and by the various currents of opinion within the Organization.
104. The tradition determining my country's attitude to this Organization, since it has had the honour of being a Member of it, is its concern to remain faithful both to its friends and to the qualities of the Organization itself. It is this same tradition which today leads us to deplore Indonesia's decision to leave the United Nations, thus interrupting a co-operation the results of which do not need to be described.
105. Since 1948 many countries which have struggled or are still struggling for freedom owe it largely to Indonesia that opinions within the United Nations have developed in favour of accelerated decolonization and effective support for the cause of liberty and independence. My country is one of those and is grateful to the people and Government of Indonesia for their work in New York and throughout the world in support of our struggle and of our exiled king. Since our achievement of independence an unfailing friendship has been developing between our two countries, which have nearly always found themselves sharing the same thoughts about certain international situations. I should like to say, with that frankness which characterizes true friendship, how much we regret this decision, the immediate and long-term consequences of which are clear both to Indonesia's friends and to its foes. The non-aligned countries which have expressed their profound faith and confidence in the United Nations, are deeply troubled by the withdrawal of a country which still has a leading role to play in Asia and Africa.
106. At a time when efforts initiated several years ago in favour of the admission of the People's Republic of China are meeting with a more receptive attitude in circles which have hitherto refused to entertain the idea, the departure of another great Asian country, whose motives we are sincerely trying to understand, cannot fail to pose fresh problems for the African-Asian countries in regard to the periodical adjustment of their international policy.
107. At this time, a few months after the second African-Asian conference held on African soil, it is impossible not to reflect on the particularly important fact of the general confidence that the African Asian countries place in the United Nations and their abiding desire to co-operate with it, as against the situation in which the two greatest Asian countries participating in the Conference find themselves. While the solid friendship which binds my country to Indonesia entitles me to express at this very rostrum, the concern to which such a decision gives rise, I do not think that the United Nations will consider that the frustration felt by a proud and courageous people is completely unfounded.
108. At the beginning of my statement I referred to what might be called the "hot crises" threatening the United Nations. It is generally admitted that such crises provoke sufficiently strong and swift reactions to meet any imminent danger; but there are other crises the chronic nature of which might lead one to think that the Organization is not likely to die of them. Nevertheless, they are of such a nature that the fate of many countries and peoples depends directly on their development.
109. South Africa seems to be establishing itself comfortably, amid indifference, in its policy of apartheid. The economic Press reports that the country is prosperous, and from time to time military reviews give assurances of its defensive capacity. Portugal is strengthening its military potential and continuing its policy of colonialism in Angola, so-called Portuguese Guinea and Mozambique, and it considers that the state of war in which it finds itself is in conformity with its destiny and the nature of its regime. These two countries seem to consider that the struggle against racism and the struggle for liberation are secondary phenomena which can have no effect on their chosen political course, but the African population of South Africa and the peoples of Angola and Mozambique, who are engaged in an unequal struggle, cannot rely indefinitely on their courage and their sacrifices alone to bring about a change in the policy of their aggressors.
110. If the struggle now being waged by those peoples is to be regarded as a measure of their desire to be liberated and if it is to be a determining factor in their desire to forge a new destiny, the international community must not stand aloof and the United Nations must not be content with merely offering sympathy and moral support.
111. The liberation of peoples is the primary objective of the United Nations, and international cooperation, which is its purpose, can be achieved only in a world where all peoples are sovereign and all States are independent.
112. The Organization of African Unity, which came into being mainly because of Africa's unanimous desire to take a direct part in giving all forms of aid and support to liberation movements throughout the continent, cannot, and indeed owing to its still limited resources does not intend to, remain the sole instrument of resistance to colonialism; its existence and its action cannot justify any lack of interest on the part of the United Nations and its Members in regard to colonial domination.
113. The Organization of African Unity derives from the faith of its members and the principles of its charter the strength and means of action which enable it to assume more and more responsibility in international affairs, firstly in the African continent and then at the world level. When it has overcome the natural difficulties of any new organization, and has achieved complete homogeneity among all its members by the acceptance of a common denominator of equilibrium between the various African trends existing prior to its constitution, it will provide the United Nations with a valuable instrument for further action for the achievement of all its objectives and greater co-operation between the Powers of yesterday and the new States.
114. It is equally essential for the future and for the moral and political authority of the Organization of African Unity that it should not hold aloof from the problems that are not strictly African. Colonialism is still to be found in other regions of the world, although in different forms from those of traditional colonialism.
115. The tragedy of Palestine is not solely an Arab problem: it is a problem of foreign occupation and domination. It is indeed a particularly odious one, in that the authentic inhabitants of the country have been expelled from their homeland for the benefit of heterogeneous immigrants who have no connexion with Palestine. In order to remain faithful to its ideal, the Organization of African Unity, taking a firm stand on the issues of colonialism and racismc should not allow its liberating zeal to weaken and should denounce with equal ardour and indignation South African racism and Israel racism. At a time when the Arab countries are studying the possibilities of legitimate exploitation of all their natural resources for the benefit of their peoples, Israel's sophistry should be met with a common front in which the conscience of Africa would play a role commensurate with its responsibilities.
116. It has become truly painful for the representative of Morocco to refer at every session to certain problems in connexion with the principle of our country's territorial integrity and the exercise of its sovereignty over the whole of its territory. Having faith in the virtue of negotiated solutions, we sincerely believed, at the time that our independence was recognized, that the disappearance of such forms of foreign presence as military bases or temporary occupation of certain regions of our country would be brought about through negotiations, not perhaps fixed for any definite date but accepted in principle and with their objective agreed upon. We have had many difficulties which our people have faced with courage and we have overcome them by dint of perseverance and patience. The former colonizers have evacuated the military bases and withdrawn their troops. Here and there they have handed over pieces of territory which were still under their authority or which they occupied on a de facto basis because of their colonial presence in other countries of Africa. Ever since then we have constantly declared our willingness to settle all the other matters in dispute by the same methods of negotiation and mutual understanding.
117. The same has not always been true of those with whom we would negotiate: at times they have tried to repudiate our rights and at other times have replied with promises, which we always trusted. Morocco's pleaders still have complete confidence in them, but as far as the settlement of such problems is concerned, the world situation is developing at such a rate that leaders cannot disregard the impatience of their people. Genuine co-operation cannot neglect such factors, and the settlement of these disputes is a condition for loyal collaboration in the various matters in which higher interests in a particular region coincide or complement each other.
118. Furthermore, the countries of the Maghreb, which have already made an encouraging start in cooperating with each other in certain matters, are equally sincere in their desire to strengthen the factors of harmony with a view to an ever closer regional union, homogeneous within its boundaries and presenting a solid front to rival or hostile groupings. Our country knows, and our friends know too, that the elimination of certain vestiges which circumstances have made anachronistic and which are incompatible with a profession of friendship is the only sound way to achieve our peoples' unanimous objective, which daily becomes more imperative in the light of past circumstances and future prospects.
119. I have deliberately refrained from mentioning certain problems to which our delegation usually devotes its attention in the course of the general debate. We hope by so doing to influence destiny a little and that the efforts of the President and Members of the Assembly, who are endeavouring to resolve our present difficulties, will enable us to tackle them directly in the committee meetings by next week. With that wish, Mr. President, I shall conclude my statement.