140. Allow me first of all Mr. President, to add my voice to those of previous speakers and to offer you the sincere congratulations of the people and Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on your unanimous election to the Presidency of this Assembly. Your outstanding qualities as statesman and diplomat, and your understanding of international problems and of human sufferings singled you out very specially for this noble task. My delegation does not doubt that your long experience in the Organization and in international political life will be of great help to you in coping with the host of difficulties inherent in the arduous task entrusted to you by the General Assembly.
141. The establishment of diplomatic relations between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Socialist Republic of Romania is concrete evidence of the good relations which happily exist between our two countries; and the Congolese delegation was one of the first to reply favourably to the request to support your candidacy for the highest office in the Assembly.
142. My delegation would also like to express its hearty congratulations to Mr. Pazhwak of Afghanistan, through whose wise and far-seeing guidance the General Assembly was able to conclude the work of its twenty-first session on a note of optimism.
143. The delegation of the Congo is thoroughly convinced that the current session is of the utmost importance. We have just gone through a period critical for the very survival of the Organization. The peoples of the Middle East are suffering the aftermath of the war, and other peoples of the world who have always suffered continue to do so to this day.
144. We have witnessed two special sessions of the General Assembly since we separated in 1966. You will therefore appreciate my delegation's interest in the twenty-second session of the General Assembly, which is meeting shortly after the political leaders of Africa met in my country to examine and try to solve the problems arising throughout our continent.
145. I have the opportunity today to thank the Secretary-General, who in spite of his schedule of engagements agreed to go in person to Kinshasa to honour by his presence the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity, in the face of the virulent campaign stirred up by certain elements of the Western Press and of the manoeuvres and the confusion deliberately engineered in the eastern part of my country by mercenaries, solely for the purpose of preventing the fourth summit meeting of the Organization of African Unity from taking place.
146. The Secretary-General made it clear by his gesture that Africa too, and its problems, are among his deepest concerns. The African peoples in general, and the Congolese people in particular, appreciated the true value of this gesture. It symbolizes a sense of duty parallel to that which six years ago inspired Dag Hammarskjold to visit the Congo, where he was to die tragically in the fulfilment of his mission. I take this opportunity to pay a resounding tribute to the memory of that great servant of peace and to the assistance which the United Nations has given the Democratic Republic of the Congo ever since our accession to independence, malting it possible for us to restore the order and territorial integrity seriously threatened at the time by international high finance.
147. You will agree with me that the personal presence of the Secretary-General of the United Nations during the summit meeting of the Organization of African Unity at Kinshasa contributed much to the outstanding success of the meeting.
148. The African leaders who met at Kinshasa took up and discussed, in an atmosphere of understanding and frankness, all the burning problems of concern to Africa, and sound solutions were found; thus we were glad to note that international public opinion had become conscious of the fact that the young African Organization had emerged stronger than ever from the meeting.
149. During our session we noted with great regret that thousands of human beings in Africa and Asia are unfortunately still under foreign and colonial domination, in spite of the General Assembly Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. With regard to Africa in particular, Portugal and its allies, South Africa and the racists of Rhodesia, must be compelled to accept and comply with the relevant decisions and resolutions adopted by the Organization. Peace can never be restored in the Territories under their occupation and domination until the African peoples have recovered their inalienable right to self-determination, freedom and independence, so as to that they can develop their lands in accordance with their innermost aspirations.
150. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is firmly determined to fight colonialism in Africa in all its forms. This unshakable resolve took concrete form this year when my country received on its territory the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, which through the hearing of petitions was able to witness the stubbornness of the administering Powers and their refusal to act on the many United Nations resolutions concerning the political and economic emancipation of the peoples under their domination.
151. For this reason, at the present session of the General Assembly my delegation will support any resolution aimed at the wholehearted application of the United Nations Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
152. I would point out that it is absurd to acquiesce and to allow reactionary Portugal, clinging to its outdated and anachronistic ideas, to go on maintaining here in this Organization that the African Territories under its colonial domination — Angola, Mozambique, Cabinda and Guinea (Bissau) — are an integral part of its metropolitan territory.
153. On the strength of this fundamentally false contention, Portugal has violated Congo's frontiers time without number, regularly bombing villages and peace- loving people and committing acts of manifest aggression against the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is every indication that in Angola and Rhodesia Portugal and its allies are concentrating a new race of reactionaries, the mercenaries, so that these latterday highwaymen from their bases of operation can encroach upon the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The recent events in the eastern part of my country provided eloquent proof of the fact that these international birds of prey do not disarm, in spite of the resolution on mercenaries adopted in the Security Council [241 (1967)] at my country's instigation. My delegation would like to thank the friendly delegations which spoke in this Assembly in condemnation of the recruitment of mercenaries. We take this opportunity to express our profound gratitude to them.
154. In giving assistance to the Angolese liberation movement, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is simply acting on the General Assembly resolution [2184 (XXI)] which appeals to all States Members of the United Nations to give the peoples of the Territories under Portuguese domination the moral and material support necessary for the restoration of their inalienable rights, namely, self-determination, freedom and independence. The liberation of the African Territories under Portuguese colonial domination will mean for the Organization the effective implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, as well as of many resolutions relating to these Territories. We are convinced that liberation achieved in this way will be a pledge of peace and security not only for the Democratic Republic of the Congo but for all the neighbouring African countries as well.
155. As regards Rhodesia, the Congolese delegation joins the other delegations in noting with regret the failure of mandatory selective economic sanctions imposed on Rhodesia by the Security Council [232 (1966)] at the request of the United Kingdom. It is the more regrettable to note that certain countries, in particular Portugal and South Africa, the principal trading partners of Rhodesia, are acting in such a way as to make the sanctions imposed inoperative and ineffective.
156. In the face of the complacent inability of the United Kingdom to take positive action to prevent these countries from carrying on their lucrative trade with Rhodesia, my delegation feels it must dwell on the moral responsibility of the United Nations to put an end to the degrading régime of the racist settlers in Rhodesia and permit our brothers the people of Zimbabwe to recover their inalienable right to freedom.
157. We sincerely believe that mandatory general sanctions must be imposed on Rhodesia, and that all States Members of the United Nations are in duty bound to conform to them. My delegation is prepared to support any concrete measure, including the use of force, to bring about the overthrow of the illegal racist régime of Ian Smith, which deliberately flouts the basic principles of democracy.
158. Similarly, the international community cannot remain unfeeling and indifferent to the inhuman treatment which South Africa is inflicting, by means of savage repression and odious crimes, on millions of human beings without means of defence or expression.
159. The human rights embodied in the Charter are literally scoffed at by this country unworthy of its admission to membership of our Organization. We have good reason to believe that the explosive situation which persists in South Africa represents a serious threat to peace and security both in Africa and internationally.
160. In the face of the many United Nations resolutions on the elimination of racial discrimination in South Africa, my delegation utterly deplores the behaviour of certain States which trade with that country and supply it with arms, thus enabling it to buildups considerable military potential not only to conduct its barbarous oppressive warfare successfully, but also to realize its dreams of domination and expansion in Africa. The world's conscience must be aroused to the need for effective international action to put an end to the humiliation of the black man in South Africa, and at the same time to prevent that part of Africa from continuing to be a hotbed of racial tension which could at any moment threaten international peace and security, whose defence the United Nations has set itself as its primary task.
161. I cannot end this reference to decolonization in Africa without underscoring, as far as the particular question of South West Africa is concerned, the full support given by my delegation to the General Assembly resolutions [2145 (XXI) and 2248 (3-V)] terminating South Africa's Mandate over that Territory and taking over the authority there. We shall also furnish genuine support to such adequate measures as this Assembly may see fit to adopt in order to reinforce the authority of the Council for South West Africa.
162. To turn now to certain matters of international policy which are of major concern to us, the speakers who have preceded me here have rightly stated that the peace of the world is more and more being threatened; that is true so long as no satisfactory solution is forthcoming for the tragic events taking place in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world. I mentioned some of them when I spoke of the situation in the African Territories under Portuguese colonial domination, in Southern Rhodesia, in South Africa and in South West Africa.
163. While we rejoice at the recommendation by the General Assembly to Member States to sign the Treaty on the peaceful uses of outer space, my delegation considers that this treaty and the one concluded in 1963, on the partial prohibition of nuclear weapon tests, should not slow down the efforts of the Organization and the Geneva negotiations to achieve more positive results in respect of general disarmament. Non-utilization and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is no real safeguard. In my delegation's opinion, only the destruction of the weapons would furnish a real prospect of international peace and security.
164. The situation in South-East Asia and the sufferings of the Viet-Namese people are matters of constant concern to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The war in Viet-Nam, as savage and destructive as ever, continues to spread its dangerous poison into the international atmosphere and over international relations. Our feeling is that once foreign intervention ends in Viet-Nam and there is a return to the 1954 Geneva Agreements, the Viet-Namese people will be able to settle their own affairs in accordance with their entirely legitimate aspirations.
165. In this respect, a particular tribute is owed to the untiring efforts by the Secretary-General to find a solution to this problem.
166. In connexion with the situation in South-East Asia, we cannot but mention the contribution which could be made by the People's Republic of China in the implementation of proposals for restoring peace in that part of the world. Thus the question of the participation of the People's Republic of China in the Organization is inescapable. As the country with the largest population in the world, China can no longer be ignored in the concert of the United Nations; quite clearly, of course, its participation in our work could not affect the presence of Nationalist China as a Member of the Organization.
167. If I may now refer to the situation in the Middle East, my delegation firmly believes in the Charter principle that Members of the Organization are invited to settle their international disputes by peaceful means and to "refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations". Hence we condemn war as a means of settling international disputes and deplore the fact that these fundamental principles of the Charter have not been respected in that region. We trust that a lasting solution, based on peaceful means, will be found.
168. This being so, my delegation would like to recall here the Declaration of the Organization of African Unity at Kinshasa:
"The Assembly of Heads of State and Government ... Expresses its sympathy to the United Arab Republic, and decides to work within the United Nations in order to secure the evacuation of the United Arab Republic's Territory [by foreign troops]".
For my delegation, this evacuation is an important step, to be followed promptly by others, along the road to an over-all solution to the problem of the Middle East.
169. I have spoken at some length of the international political situation; I should now like to discuss the economic aspect of the work of the international community.
170. My Government's interest in the problems of international trade in primary commodities, in encouraging industrialization, and in economic development, is in keeping with the universal concern to increase productivity so as to give the great masses the benefit of social and economic democracy.
171. The Democratic Republic of the Congo expresses its heartfelt gratitude to the United Nations, the specialized agencies and the United Nations Development Programme for the material and intellectual co-operation it is receiving. We trust that this cooperation will be increased, for the urgency of the reform programmes being undertaken by the new régime in my country requires this.
172. The importance of the role of international trade in the economic development of the Third World is obvious. Nor is it necessary to argue at length to establish its contribution to the expansion of world economy. The creation of UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), which prominent economists had fought for, and the recent Kennedy Round agreements, are tangible evidence of that. However, my delegation regrets that the economies of the developing countries, built on the model of nineteenth century liberal theory, cannot take full advantage of world trade. The responsibility for this regrettable situation cannot be laid entirely at the door of the developing countries. If they are to break through the vicious circle in which their outmoded economic structures have placed them, concerned action at the international level is vital.
173. The First Conference on Trade and Development had the virtue of identifying the problems and outlining solutions, which unfortunately were not all accepted unanimously; the backcloth is political.
174. For this reason, political decisions must now come from the side of the industrialized countries. My delegation fervently hopes that with the meeting of the seventy-seven at Algiers to establish a common front for the forthcoming New Delhi Conference of UNCTAD, the industrialized countries will respond without further delay to the dramatic challenge issued to them by the developing countries.
175. In our view the problem of the foreign trade of the developing countries must in practice be stated as follows: to improve their position in international trade, they must re-structure their economies. For this they need substantial amounts of capital, since domestic savings are extremely small. Furthermore, exports are their main source of funds, and these are in a state of stagnation due to the concurrence of technical progress and increasing protectionist measures. In addition, the increase in the foreign debt service resulting from exorbitant interest rates is a disturbing factor in the balance of payments of the developing countries. At the same time it is deplorable to find that the flow of private capital from the industrialized countries to the developing countries is steadily declining from year to year, though there is no doubt that it makes an appreciable and effective contribution to economic development. To these limiting factors must be added the problem of the stabilization of world prices of raw materials, and with it the deterioration in the terms of trade, which steadily widens the gap between the developed countries and the developing countries, the inevitable result being that the developed countries are growing richer and richer and the underdeveloped countries poorer and poorer.
176. Thus the process is a cumulative one, so that it can be stated today without fear of contradiction that the real proletarians of the twentieth century are the African peasants, and that at the present moment economic and social problems alike are no longer to be seen in terms of Western bloc versus Eastern bloc, but in terms of the distance of the industrialized countries ahead of the developing countries. It is therefore legitimate for the latter to try to include in their economic policies a programme to set up industries for processing raw materials, at any rate up to the primary stage in the production cycle, for as everyone knows, up to the present the majority of developing countries are still sleeping partners as far as the international market is concerned. This places a heavy burden of responsibility on the industrialized countries.
177. The reform of the economic structures of the developing countries strikes us as hardly feasible unless a fillip is given to the economies in the form of aid. In this connexion my delegation is glad to see that as a result of the agreement on international liquidity the industrialized countries will have an opportunity to furnish increased aid to the developing countries. We hope and trust that the bulk of the aid to be given by the developing countries to the countries of the Third World will be channelled first and foremost into sectors where it can bring about a rapid development of the economy, and that it will be provided within a multilateral rather than a bilateral framework; for it very frequently happens that bilateral financial assistance has political strings attached.
178. I cannot refrain from mentioning the technique applied by a certain industrialized country — Belgium to be precise — which uses the technical assistance it furnishes to my country in the context of bilateral co-operation as an instrument of blackmail and pressure.
179. Belgium indeed not only prevents teachers who have worked in the Congo under technical assistance from returning there; it even exerts intolerable pressure on those who contemplate accepting employment under private contact with the Congolese Government. The pretext is an alleged lack of personal safety — as though the technical assistance teaching staff from other countries operating in the Congo were any safer than Belgians. The truth is that at the instigation of the imperialist circles in Belgium — the ones that are backing the mercenaries in the east of the Congo — Belgium wants to force us to modify our basic policies and inter alia to accept its interpretation of our economic independence.
180. Today, with these teachers out of work, Belgium is embarking on a veritable publicity campaign to try to place its nationals in other African and Latin American countries. We venture to hope that the experience of our relations with Belgium in this field, and its tactics of using the technical assistance it furnishes as a means of exerting pressure, will open the eyes of our friends to the real motives behind this seemingly generous Belgian offer. It is shameful that a country which like Belgium has made hay by exploiting the wealth of another country should act as it does today. As far as we are concerned, we have made up our minds. We have closed our universities for a year and obliged the students to spend the year teaching in the primary and secondary schools of the country. We have made this sacrifice as the price of our dignity and independence.
181. If I may revert to the question of multilateral technical assistance organs, my delegation feels that these organs should simplify their procedure and inform the beneficiary countries properly of the stipulations and conditions governing the aid granted. In this way they would be contributing to the economic expansion and consolidation of the political and economic independence of the developing countries. Some of the latter, because of their natural resources, are looked on with covetous eyes, but for lack of capital and skills, they are forced to choose between poverty and the surrender of their sovereignty.
182. My delegation is firmly convinced that the desperate appeal we make here to the industrialized countries will not go unheeded, and we are well aware that neither financial aid nor technical assistance, on whatever scale, can of Itself bring about the steady economic growth of the developing countries unless in those countries there is the political will and a collective urge towards progress and development.
183. I am happy to mention here in this Hall the efforts made by my Government to this end since 24 November 1965, the date of the accession to power of the military High Command. To redress the country's financial situation, the new régime has been obliged to adopt energetic measures, both administrative and political, to absorb the budget deficit, one of the chief causes of the creeping inflation which was spreading over the country. These concerted measures have rapidly produced the effect intended; the budget deficit has been substantially absorbed, and financial stability is in the offing.
184. But this ambitious programme, and the sacrifices made by the Congolese people, cannot bear fruit unless certain conditions are fulfilled. Unfortunately, at the very time when the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is struggling to attain these conditions, when it is making prodigious efforts to train skilled personnel and to create a climate conducive to development, we have regretfully to say that the order and calm so dearly won back are being disturbed by foreign mercenaries. For all that, my Government feels that it is its bounden duty to spare no effort to protect life and property.
185. In conclusion I should like to recall that in the course of this statement I have tried to express the views of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the great issues of international policy and economic co-operation. It is the duty of the Members of the United Nations to give the Organization genuine co-operation not only with a view to reaffirming and safeguarding the goals of international peace and security, but more important still, with a view to finding peaceful means of coping with the tensions and conflicts which so dangerously affect the world situation.