1. Mr. President, allow me first, on behalf of Cambodia, to offer you our very sincere congratulations on your unanimous election to the Presidency of the nineteenth session of the General Assembly, whose work will, we hope, be crowned with success.
2. This session of the General Assembly is of unusual importance in the eyes of the Cambodian delegation, which is convinced that on our work and our decisions may depend, sooner or later, whether there is to be lasting peace or a war with incalculable consequences for the future of mankind. In this respect, I think that most representatives share our concern, despite some forced optimism which cannot obscure grave events and a very disturbing turn which the situation has taken in many parts of the world.
3. We must regretfully acknowledge that conflicts of interest, a will to dominate, contempt for the rights of peoples, and pride in maintaining illusory prestige have gravely complicated international problems which call for urgent and realistic solution. For us, as for many other countries, hope for a more fraternal world gives way, each year, to new disappointments and new fears. And so it will be, as long as the United Nations Charter is openly violated or disregarded by certain countries, several of which were its promoters and authors.
4. Cambodia occupies but a very small place in the world of today. Its population, natural resources and military and economic power are too small for its voice to influence the decisions of a few Powers — decisions that are blindly followed or passively accepted. It has neither the right nor the wish to set itself up as a moralist or as a judge in regard to anyone's actions. None the less, it is my duty clearly to describe the standpoint of a people which has two thousand years of history behind it, which founded one of the great Asian civilizations and which is deeply imbued with the doctrine of tolerance and peace brought to it by Buddhism.
5. In all humility, then, I shall today venture to appeal to all representatives — be they Buddhists, Christians, Moslems, agnostics, Asians, Europeans, Africans, Americans, communists, anti-communists or neutralists—to put an end to the disputes, prejudices and injustices which are at the root of all our difficulties. We must save our planet from chaos and avoid the destruction of everything which our ancestors, at the cost of so much effort and patience, achieved over several thousands of years. This, however, implies that our Organization must impose on its Members the strictest respect for a Charter solemnly accepted by all but too often forgotten.
6. At this nineteenth session, Cambodia for its part will merely raise or call to mind a few of the burning questions facing the United Nations — either because we are particularly familiar with them, or because they concern us directly or indirectly.
7. For many years, from this rostrum, the representatives of Cambodia have drawn the attention of the United Nations to a problem that involves the very principles on which our Organization was founded. I refer to the restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations and in all the major international organizations.
8. Our eminent Secretary-General, U Thant, recalled some weeks ago that one of the aims of the United Nations was universality. But how can we speak of universality when the lawful representatives of 700 million Chinese, or one fifth of humanity, have been ostracized without the slightest justification?
9. The fiction of granting the pseudo-Government of Taipei the right to speak in the name of the Chinese people has been indefensible ever since, in 1949, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed. For fifteen years—in this Assembly, in the Security Council and in the major international agencies—the Taiwan representatives have been occupying China's seat without any right to it whatsoever. Of this we must in truth say that the attitude of all delegations, without exception, in regard to these Taipei representatives is complete confirmation. There is not one country in the world which does not recognize, today, that the existence of the People's Republic of China is a fact and that the non-existence of the so-called Republic of China, an American protectorate, is equally a fact,
10. Everyone knows that the refusal by certain Powers to consent to the reinstatement of the People's Republic of China in all its rights within the United Nations is based on political considerations completely foreign to the spirit in which our Organization was founded. It is undeniable that the Chinese people had every right to adopt the political system of its choice, without thereby losing its international rights. Many other countries have undergone people's revolutions; they have none the less retained their seats in the United Nations. It was the Egypt of King Farouk, not that of President Nasser, which was admitted to the Organization; the Cuba of the dictator Batista, not the People's Republic of Premier Fidel Castro; the Congo (Brazzaville) of Abbé Youlou, not that of President Massamba-Debat; and so forth. Why, then, apply a discriminatory and altogether arbitrary measure in regard to the People's Republic of China?
11. We have heard, and shall doubtless hear again, assertions by the representatives of the United States and of countries following in their train to the effect that the People's Republic of China has never given sufficient evidence of its will to peace to entitle it to sit among us. Such assertions are unfounded and are in complete conflict with the statements and actions of the Chinese Government: the leaders of the People's Republic of China have always, and unequivocally, declared their stand in favour of political solutions to disputes which may arise between independent States. China's peaceful policy is, moreover, confirmed by its scrupulous respect for the Geneva Agreements of 1954 and 1962. Those whose denials of that fact are the most strenuous are precisely the countries which have been the most barefaced in their violation of those Agreements.
12. It is asserted in some Western circles that the People's Republic of China practises an aggressive policy. But we must recall that there is no Chinese military base outside Chinese territory, and no Chinese war fleet outside Chinese territorial waters. It would be well if all the Powers sitting and speaking in this Assembly were equally moderate.
13. It is also asserted that every popular revolt which breaks out around the world, in Asia, Africa and Latin America, is the result of Chinese intervention. Yet in all these instances it is a case of national revolt against the military presence and political or economic interference of certain Western Powers. We have striking examples of this in South Viet-Nam, Cuba, Laos, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen and Zanzibar. In all these countries China has never intervened militarily, although the sending of American expeditionary forces to South Viet-Nam and Laos, for example, indisputably gave China the opportunity and the right to do so. The so-called Chinese threat has, in fact, become an alibi for every Western colonialist or imperialist enterprise for which the African-Asian and Latin American countries pay the price.
14. It is certainly not our intention to pose as China's advocate. Cambodia is not authorized to plead a case which can stand on its own merits. But our freedom of judgement stemming from our policy of non-alignment, and our position as an Asian nation acquainted with Chinese foreign policy, oblige us to speak out against injustice. Moreover it should be emphasized that, if China is attacked as a communist country, it is also attacked, perhaps to an even greater degree, as a new Asian Power resisting imperialist designs on the non-aligned world as a whole.
15. Certain great Powers, seeking to prove at any price that Peking wants war, have declared that the explosion of China's first atomic bomb has borne out that contention. Yet these same Powers have long been equipped with a nuclear arsenal, which they continue to expand and improve, without hiding their determination to have recourse to it if they consider their interests to be unduly threatened anywhere. Increasingly strident American voices are even heard asking for a nuclear attack against China, with a view to eliminating it from the nuclear club into which it has just forced its way.
16. The time for baseless, purely propaganda statements has passed. It is urgently necessary for the world to realize that none of the great international problems can be solved without the participation of the People's Republic of China, and it is absurd and dangerous to think that the use of force could permanently prevent China from playing its role of a great Power.
17. Some countries envisage a solution of the Chinese problem through the creation of "two Chinas". But such a solution is unjust, and obviously no country in the world would agree to sacrifice its unity in exchange for a half-seat in the United Nations. China is a founding Member of the United Nations and, de jure, a permanent member of the Security Council; it is unthinkable that it could allow its lawful rights to be shared with a pseudo-government, which is all that the rebel administration of Taiwan Province really is.
18. In this connexion, a day will certainly come when the Chinese province of Taiwan will return to the mother country. It would therefore be reasonable to encourage the Taipei authorities to study with the central Government at Peking, without any foreign interference, procedures for an agreement bringing to an end a separation which has lasted only too long.
19. This year again, many countries, including France, have realistically given de jure recognition to the People's Republic of China as genuinely representing the entire Chinese people. A couple of months ago, the forty-seven countries represented at the Second Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries asked the United Nations General Assembly "... to restore [at its next session] the rights of the People's Republic of China and to recognize the representatives of its Government as the only legitimate representatives of China in the United Nations" [A/5763, section IX]. Finally, the countries having the closest ties with the United States admit that China's return to the United Nations cannot be delayed beyond 1965.
20. There can be no doubt that China could bear with this inexplicable further delay, without injury to itself. But would that be true of our Organization, which must find urgent solutions to serious and pressing problems such as disarmament and international co-operation? The Cambodian delegation does not think so, and ventures to draw the General Assembly's attention to the impossibility of excluding China from the great decisions which will be taken and of demanding that China should accept obligations deriving from agreements concluded without its participation.
21. Certain countries, obviously at the instigation of the United States, have raised what they describe as the question of human rights in Tibet. This is clearly a propaganda manoeuvre, designed to discredit China in the eyes of countries which are already convinced of the need to agree to the return of China's representatives to the United Nations.
22. What our Assembly is being asked to do is to pronounce, in China's absence, on a Chinese domestic question which is outside the competence of the United Nations and whose examination is, indeed, contrary to the Charter. For it need hardly be recalled that Tibet, linked to China by bonds of vassalage for more than a thousand years, has been part of Chinese territory since the beginning of the eighteenth century. We should add that the Treaty of 1951, which gave to Tibet internal autonomy within the People's Republic of China, encountered no opposition or reservation from any country whatsoever.
23. There should be greater explicitness with regard to this question of human rights in Tibet. Does it refer to the Tibetan people, who are emerging from the early Middle Ages and are today enjoying freedom, education, medical care and modern material civilization? Or does it refer to the handful of feudal lords who have been deprived of anachronistic and exorbitant privileges, including the right of life and death over their slaves?
24. The Cambodian delegation for its part considers that there is no Tibetan question but that there is a Khmer question as well as questions concerning Viet-Nam, Laos, Africa, North America and Latin America, where human rights are shamefully violated and the whole existence of peoples is being threatened.
25. The Indo-Chinese problem is indisputably one of the most serious facing the world today, since on the way it develops in the coming months depends the issue of peace or war for our country, for Asia, and indeed for the whole world. Some little time ago, a leading American figure publicly stated that the domestic conflict in South Viet-Nam could bring on a third world war. That is quite true; South Viet-Nam could easily become the cause of a new world conflict.
26. Directly threatened by such prospects, Cambodia will venture to describe, dispassionately, the origin of this dangerous situation — or, more accurately, of this deadlock — and suggest measures calculated to prevent a general war, whose consequences for the future of mankind every country can imagine. The first cause of the situation in South Viet-Nam is the refusal of certain Powers — that is, the United States and South Viet-Nam — to abide by the Geneva Agreements of 1954, which had brought the war in Viet-Nam to an end. Those Agreements may not have been perfect, but they had the immense advantage of offering the three Indo-Chinese States an opportunity to establish lasting peace and devote themselves completely to national development.
27. The 1954 Agreements contemplated that Viet-Nam should be reunified in 1956 by means of general elections. The Saigon Government opposed this idea, alleging — somewhat illogically — that it rejected the division of Viet-Nam imposed by the Geneva Conference.
28. The 1954 Agreements implied that France, having disengaged itself militarily from South Viet-Nam, should not be replaced by any other Power. But the United States hastened the departure of the French somewhat, so as to provide the dictator, Ngo Dinh Diem with the political, military and economic support he was seeking in order to impose his regime on the people of South Viet-Nam. Such was the origin of the second war for the liberation of South Viet-Nam.
29. Today, over 20,000 American soldiers are taking part in, and most often leading, the operations against the forces of the National Liberation Front.
30. Today, nearly four fifths of the territory of South Viet-Nam have fallen under the control of those opposed to the Saigon regime and to the United States presence; according to the most optimistic American observers, at least 90 per cent of the population are so opposed. The Government and United States forces, consistently defeated in the military operations, find compensation by raining napalm and other bombs on all Viet-Namese villages and, as a concomitant, on Cambodian frontier villages. For some weeks there has even been an idea of carrying the war into North Viet-Nam — which would guarantee no victory for South Viet-Nam but would inevitably set off a chain reaction culminating in a full-scale war.
31. In Laos, where United States and Thai intervention is perhaps less obvious but just as real, the situation is no better and no less explosive. In that hapless land, the Geneva Agreements of 1954 and 1962 are violated daily and an armed confrontation between the United States and North Viet-Nam may at any moment have the most serious consequences.
32. Cambodia, for its part, has always scrupulously observed the 1954 Agreements and has consistently followed a policy of neutrality and friendship towards all countries, irrespective of political regime or ideology. As a result, it has been able to preserve its national unity and internal peace and to devote itself successfully to economic and social development. All observers recognize that Cambodia is a "land of work and an oasis of peace" in striking contrast with the neighbouring countries which are carrying the burden of a civil war imposed from outside.
33. Nevertheless, our policy of peace and neutrality has always been bitterly criticized by the United States and the countries subservient to or allied with it. In the last few months, this criticism has turned to open hostility as demonstrated by the participation of United States advisers and pilots in the acts of aggression committed by the forces of the Saigon States against Cambodian territory.
34. It should be noted that this American hostility cannot be based on ideological considerations, since Cambodia is a monarchy which is exceptionally stable because the people are solidly united in a wholly independent patriotic movement. Cambodia is strictly neutral, and has proved it in the past ten years: it has signed no pact or military treaty, and has never accepted or tolerated the presence of foreign bases or troops on its territory. All honest persons must agree that Cambodia threatens no one and wishes only to live in peace within its frontiers.
35. Yet it is a fact that, despite their declarations of intent, the United States and its protégés, our neighbours, have never recognized Cambodia's right to maintain its neutrality and its complete independence. I would remind you that the actions of those who elected to become our enemies go back to 1958, and that each year, from this rostrum, the Cambodian delegation has brought them to the knowledge of the General Assembly.
36. At first, we had to cope with political subversion designed to turn Cambodia from its neutrality. When those efforts proved a total failure, we had to face a plot, devised by United States, South Viet-Namese and Thai special forces, to bring about the secession of our province of Siem Reap.
37. Finally, when that plot failed, recourse was had to direct aggression against Cambodian territory and to the creation, in South Viet-Nam, of a movement of traitors bought at ransom price and calling themselves "Free Cambodians".
38. We have been subjected to more than 300 attacks or violations of territory and air space by United States-South Viet-Namese forces. The peasants of our frontier villages have been massacred, their houses set afire, their crops destroyed and their flocks slaughtered. Last July, a chemical warfare attack by aircraft was launched against our northernmost province. With no justification at all, our neighbours and their protectors strike blindly with the sole object of sowing terror.
39. The Saigon Government replied to our protests by making an official but brutal and wholly unjustifiable claim to our off-shore islands. At the same time, official United States and South Viet-Namese circles did not hesitate to challenge the validity of the Cambodian-South Viet-Namese frontier, by proclaiming in statements and throughout the Press that it was vague and poorly defined.
40. In August 1962, the Cambodian Government requested that the Geneva Conference of 1954, the only organ empowered to provide Cambodia with an international guarantee of its neutrality and territorial integrity, should be urgently convened. This legitimate request has thus far met with categorical opposition from the United States and South Viet-Nam, and with delaying tactics on the part of the United Kingdom, a co-chairman of the Conference. This indicates clearly that the Governments of the United
41. Indeed, there has been a succession of increasingly violent attacks against Cambodian territory in the past few months. Last October, one of our peaceful border villages was subjected to a fierce bombardment by United States - South Viet-Namese planes, resulting in a number of dead and wounded among the civilian population. This act of aggression brought the people's exasperation to boiling-point and caused the Royal Government to state that any further act of aggression would inevitably bring about a diplomatic break with the United States and reprisals against the aggressors, regardless of the consequences.
42. Moreover, in view of the refusal to grant our request for international guarantees, we decided without further delay to negotiate a written agreement with the National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam and the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, formally recognizing the present Cambodian — Viet-Namese frontiers and Cambodian sovereignty over the offshore islands which the Saigon authorities are unlawfully claiming. In connexion with this decision, the Royal Government would point out that the present situation in South Viet-Nam shows that the National Liberation Front enjoys the support of over 90 per cent of the South Viet-Namese population and effectively controls four fifths of the territory.
43. Nevertheless, and to conclude my remarks on the Indo-Chinese question which is so often poorly understood, I should like once again to stress that that question as a whole can be settled only by the countries concerned, with the guarantee of the Geneva Powers — that is, the United States, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China. The Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries recognized the soundness of that view when it appealed to the Powers which participated in the Geneva Conferences of 1954 and 1962: "(1) To abstain from any action likely to aggravate the situation which is already tense in the Peninsula; "(2) To terminate all foreign interference in the internal affairs of the countries of that region; "(3) To convene urgently a new Geneva Conference on Indo-China with a view to seeking a satisfactory political solution for the peaceful settlement of the problems arising in that part of the world, namely: "(a) Ensuring the strict application of the 1962 agreements on Laos; "(b) Recognizing and guaranteeing the neutrality and territorial integrity of Cambodia; "(c) Ensuring the strict application of the 1954 Geneva Agreement on Viet-Nam, and finding a political solution to the problem in accordance with the legitimate aspirations of the Viet-Namese peoples to freedom, peace and independence." [A/5763, section V.]
44. The solution to the over-all problem of Indochina can indeed only be a political one, as the most enlightened Americans themselves admit. It will necessarily entail a guaranteed neutralization of Cambodia, Laos and South Viet-Nam — which would in no way affect the balance of world power. It should further be recognized that, like the Cambodian people, the peoples of South Viet-Nam and Laos are fully entitled to choose their own domestic regime and institutions without outside interference.
45. We have noted, during the past year, an opinion sometimes expressed by countries not very familiar with the Indo-Chinese problem that the United Nations could effectively help to restore peace in that part of the world. This advocacy of political and especially military intervention in South-East Asia by our Organization is unquestionably of United States origin. The United States has been trying, and probably still is trying, to drag the "blue helmets" into its disastrous escapade in South Viet-Nam.
46. In support of this assertion, I should like to describe as briefly as possible one of the attempts made by the United States to bring about United Nations intervention in the Cambodian—South Viet-Namese question.
47. Following the attack on the Cambodian village of Taey by United States—South Viet-Namese forces on 7 May 1964, we submitted to the Security Council a complaint against the United States and Saigon Governments, which had been jointly responsible for that act of aggression. In a resolution adopted on 4 June, the Council: requested that "just and fair compensation should be offered to the Royal Government of Cambodia" [para. 2] for the loss of life and property caused by the United States—South Viet-Namese acts of aggression; invited "those responsible to take all appropriate measures to prevent any further violation of the Cambodian frontiers" [para. 3]; and requested "all States and authorities and in particular the members of the Geneva Conference to recognize and respect Cambodia's neutrality and territorial integrity" [para. 4],
48. Those three requests were neither implemented nor respected. But a mission of inquiry went to Cambodia and South Viet-Nam and then submitted a report indicating that the investigators had in fact confined their inquiry almost solely to a study of the dispute between Cambodia and South Viet-Nam — which was not at all what they had been instructed to do. Pari passu with this the United States Government and the Saigon regime stated it to be their intention that an international police force should be established on either side of the frontier — in other words, involved in the war in South Viet-Nam.
49. The Cambodian Government thereupon requested that its complaint — which the Security Council was in any case refusing to consider — should be shelved.
50. The Cambodian delegation wishes in this connexion to point out that we have always pressed for close supervision of our frontiers and our territory, including our ports, with a view to disposing of United States and South Viet-Namese charges that we were abetting the National Liberation Front in its struggle against the Saigon Government and its protectors. What country in the world would accept such a restriction of its sovereignty merely in order to prove its good faith? But the only organ competent to effect such supervision is the International Commission for Supervision and Control established by the 1954 Geneva Agreements — a Commission consisting of India, Canada and Poland.
51. But the United States and their protégés, who must be aware of the emptiness of their charges, have always been against such supervision — thus revealing their obvious bad faith. That being so, let them desist from their slanderous accusations.
52. Today, Cambodia reiterates its opposition to any United Nations intervention in the problem of Indochina, and maintains its demand that the 1954 Geneva Conference be reconvened and that the agreements concluded at that time be reactivated. The United Nations, despite all its prestige and moral authority, cannot expect to settle a problem affecting an area several countries of which are being kept out of the Organization. Moreover, United Nations intervention in problems less complex than ours has often yielded results which have been disappointing and contrary to those hoped for. We have only to mention the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the situation is infinitely more serious today than it was before the United Nations operations which began in 1960.
53. With regard to the position in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we consider that foreign interference in its internal affairs and the use of foreign mercenaries in the Congolese Army have created a dangerous situation threatening peace and security in Africa. Cambodia, seriously disturbed by the latest Belgian and United States military intervention at Stanleyville, desires that the imperialist stranglehold on the Congo cease and that the tragic problem of the Congo be solved through negotiation.
54. The Cambodian delegation shares the French and Soviet point of view with regard to the illegal expenses which the United States is trying to make all Members of the Organization bear. For its part, Cambodia will refuse to contribute to the financing of operations wherever the United Nations intervenes in order to put an end to real or supposed aggression. The Royal Government considers that all the consequences, including the financial consequences, of an act of aggression committed against any country should be borne by the aggressors alone. It is, moreover, on this basis that it has always been made clear that any supervision of our frontiers and our territory by the International Commission for supervision and control must be financed by those who carry out aggression and make accusations against us — namely, the United States.
55. There are two further matters which the Cambodian delegation will venture to raise. The first is disarmament, and the second is the struggle against racism.
56. Disarmament has been on the agenda ever since the United Nations was founded, yet never have the great Powers armed themselves so feverishly as they have during the past fifteen years. Atomic weapons continue to grow in number and in destructive power, and conventional weapons are being spread ever more intensively throughout every country of the world.
57. Certain great Powers thought they could secure for themselves a nuclear monopoly under the Moscow Treaty. But, as Cambodia has emphasized, the problem is not that of a partial cessation of nuclear testing; it is that of complete prohibition and total destruction, under international control, of nuclear weapons. This goal can be achieved only through a conference attended by all countries of the world; it cannot be reached merely through an agreement between the nuclear Powers of the moment. We know that virtually any industrialized country is or will be in a position to manufacture its own atomic or hydrogen bombs and to disregard any agreement on which it has not been consulted. Cambodia accordingly considers that the Chinese proposal for a world summit conference to eliminate nuclear weapons is a reasonable one, and gives it full support.
58. This nuclear aspect of disarmament should not, however, cause us to overlook the problem of conventional weapons, which are more than enough to eliminate a small country from the map of the world. In this connexion, we believe that the first measure which would permit the creation of favourable conditions for total disarmament and for the establishment of a lasting peace is the elimination of all foreign bases, which are so many powder-kegs "judiciously" distributed for the provoking of a third world war. South-East Asia, riddled with land, naval and air bases, of a so-called "defensive" nature, provides one example of the dangers inherent in the absurd and anachronistic military policy of the great Western Powers. No honest person can maintain that the establishment of bases outside national territories is evidence of a sincere desire for peace.
59. Finally, I shall venture to raise the problem of racism and that of minorities, with which it is closely connected.
60. At previous sessions of the General Assembly, the Cambodian delegation has regularly drawn representatives' attention to the fate of the Cambodian minority in South Viet-Nam; this minority has been the victim of the Saigon regime's policy of oppression and even of genocide. It consists, I would recall, of some 700,000 people, descendants of the first occupants of the land; they are subjected to a policy of exclusion, the ultimate purpose of which is the complete elimination of their community. This same policy is also applied against the Rhade, Cham, Jarai and other minorities, which recently rose against their oppressors but failed to obtain any recognition of their rights.
61. Cambodia desires that the United Nations should look into this serious problem and summon all Governments to respect the rights of ethnic communities which, by an accident of history, are completely at their mercy. It seems to us that in most cases a happy solution to this complex problem is the creation of autonomous provinces, regions or territories in which the minority population can develop and progress without abandoning its past, its traditions, its customs, its religion and its language.
62. Sometimes, of course, a minority population is dispersed throughout a country and cannot be welded into a homogeneous community inhabiting a specific region. Even so, however, it is inadmissible that de jure or de facto segregation, which is a survival from barbarian eras, should be perpetuated. In this connexion, Cambodia extends full sympathy and support to the legitimate struggle of the negro citizens of the United States who, despite the noble efforts of the late President Kennedy, remain deprived of their most elementary rights. All the African-Asian and Latin American countries intensely resent the injustice still suffered by some 20 million American Negroes who are the victims of every form of racism. A country such as ours is all the more roused to indignation by this racism in that Chinese, Viet-Namese, Indian and European communities live, with us, on a basis of complete equality with the Cambodian people.
63. It would be desirable for this Assembly to take the most energetic measures to compel the Government of South Africa to abandon its odious policy of apartheid, which is a disgrace to humanity and for which all Members of the United Nations in fact bear a large measure of responsibility.
64. May I now reply to the malicious and slanderous statements concerning my country made in this Assembly last Wednesday by the representative of Thailand. The matters mentioned by the Thai representative are old ones and my delegation has already had occasion to dispose of them fully in the past. I would not have referred to them again if the representative of Thailand had not this year tried once more to distort the facts and to sow confusion by making general and gratuitous assertions.
65. For example, the Thai representative, obviously referring to Cambodia, stated that his country "finds it difficult to have a satisfactory relationship with one neighbour, which has so far refused to live on friendly terms with it and twice on unjustifiable grounds took the initiative of breaking relations with us" (that is, with Thailand) [1296th meeting, para. 63].
66. The fact is that, if Cambodia was obliged to recall its Ambassador in 1958, it was as a result of measures of intimidation taken by Thailand at a time when Cambodian delegates were at Bangkok for the very purpose of negotiations. A violent demonstration was organized against the Cambodian Embassy at Bangkok. Thailand's armed forces took up positions along the Cambodian frontier. At the same time, the Thai Government unilaterally denounced the agreement concerning the movement of frontier inhabitants; and Cambodian tourists were arrested, interrogated and expelled by the Thai police.
67. The Thai Minister for Foreign Affairs should also be aware that it was the charges and insults indulged in by his Government which caused the breaking of diplomatic relations in 1961. The leaders, Press and radio of Thailand were grossly insulting the monarchy, leaders and people of Cambodia.
68. I shall not go further into this matter. Two White Papers have been published by the Cambodian Government in this connexion, and they prove that it was not for unjustifiable reasons that Cambodia had to break off diplomatic relations with Thailand.
69. Mr. Thanat Khoman also stated that the agreements negotiated by Mr. Gussing came to nought because of Cambodia's failure to observe them, What was at issue was, rather, proposals by the Secretary-General, to which Cambodia immediately gave its support. We also took steps on our own account with a view to reducing tension between the two countries. It was Cambodia which proposed the exchange of prisoners covering Thai nationals arrested for illegal entry of our territory and for espionage and the various Cambodian nationals abducted by the Thais from our own territory. It was likewise Cambodia which proposed the opening of a conference of Cambodian and Thai technicians for the seeking of measures calculated to lead to the normalization of relations between the two countries.
70. The so-called efforts of Thailand and its cooperation to this end have in fact taken the form of territorial claims. To quote only the case of Preah Vihear, forcibly occupied by Thailand and reassigned to Cambodia under a judgement of the International Court of Justice in 1962, the Thai Government has never yet officially recognized this decision of the Court.
71. Mr. Thanat Khoman also saddled Cambodia with the responsibility for breaking the 1960 agreements on the press truce — which is entirely at variance with the facts. In this connexion I would recall that in October 1962, wishing to aid whole-heartedly in the re-establishment of normal relations between the two countries, Cambodia immediately accepted the proposal for the appointment of a representative of the Secretary-General to investigate the difficulties which had arisen between Cambodia and Thailand.
72. With regard to the Secretary-General's proposals made last year for a resumption of relations between the two countries, the Royal Government of Cambodia replied to them immediately and favourably, whereas Thailand, after months of silence and following several reminders from the Secretary-General, finally made it known that it "did not believe that the time was favourable for the resumption of diplomatic relations".
73. The Press and radio of Cambodia have long refrained from any criticism of or reference to Thailand, whereas from the Thai side there has been no cessation of slanderous attacks upon Cambodia.
74. As recently as 14 November 1964, just prior to the end of Mr. Gussing's mission and when Cambodia had been observing the truce for many months, the Thai Government, through its Minister for Foreign Affairs, again launched a campaign of denigration and tendentious propaganda against Cambodia. The Government of Cambodia brought this circumstance to the knowledge of Mr. Gussing, the Secretary-General's personal representative. These facts prove that it is indeed Thailand which, after having decided to terminate Mr. Gussing's conciliation mission, has done everything to prevent reconciliation.
75. By deliberately maintaining tension in the area, and by pursuing an aggressive policy with regard to its neighbour, Cambodia, Thailand is creating a state of latent conflict which serves its own interests, to the detriment of peace and security in South-East Asia.
76. Cambodia, as a neutral and peaceful country, is fully entitled to maintain relations with all countries which respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Cambodia has always affirmed — and I take occasion to affirm it once more — that normal relations with Thailand can be resumed only if that country agrees to recognize and respect the present frontiers between the two countries — frontiers which have been validly laid down by international agreements and were confirmed in 1962 by a judgement of the International Court of Justice,
77. The delegation of Cambodia makes a strong and indignant protest against the gratuitous and unjustified statements of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Thailand who is trying to mislead world opinion in order to conceal his Government's black designs against Cambodia.