59. It is with very special pleasure, Mr. President, that the delegation of the Republic of Mali offers you its sincere congratulations on your resounding election to the Presidency of this twenty-second session of the General Assembly. In so doing, our intention is to invest this event with deep significance, inasmuch as we all recognize that the United Nations cannot respond to the hopes and aspirations of man unless it is itself, first of all, the mirror of today’s world.
60. When the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Mali, Mr. Ousman Ba, spoke from this rostrum [1443rd meeting] of the unusually gloomy circumstances in which the work of the twenty-first session of the General Assembly had opened, he described the international situation at the time as the inescapable consequence of a more general crisis, which is simply and solely the system of imperialism.
61. A year has gone by since then. In the introduction to his annual report, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant, speaks of the grave misgivings he feels at the worsening of the international situation. He says for example:
"When unbridled use of force is accepted and intimidation and threats go unchallenged, the hopes of a world order such as the one outlined in the Charter become dim and hollow. When prejudice and hatred dominate the relations of nations or groups of nations, the whole world takes a step backward towards the dark ages ... When force and military competitiveness displace co-operation, negotiation, law and diplomacy as the natural elements of the relations between States, the nightmare of a third world war comes steadily nearer to the world of reality." [A/6701/Add.1, para. 151.]
62. This scathing indictment of international relations reveals how the United Nations is more than ever living in a fool’s paradise. For the pattern of the world today is one of imperialist conquests and wars of aggression. A rapid survey of the problems of today presents us with the sobering spectacle of the steadily growing challenge of imperialism and the worsening of international relations.
63. In Asia, a barbaric war, based on a deliberate policy of extermination, is being waged against the gallant, brave people of Viet-Nam, destroying houses and schools, hospitals and health centres, bringing havoc and mourning to a people whose only pretension has been its resolve to fight in order to free itself from foreign domination and its agents, and to achieve complete independence. Faced with the horrors of aggression, the world is unanimous in its call for peace in Viet-Nam. Need one produce evidence of this? It can be found even in the statements of American politicians and in the American Press. Senators and Congressmen, echoing the feelings of millions of Americans, today condemn the war in Viet-Nam and call for an end to it.
64. In The New York Times of 24 September 1967, we read that Mr. Don Luce, the head of an American civil volunteer organization in Saigon, resigned in protest against the policy of his Government. In his letter of protest and resignation he wrote that he had witnessed the destruction of a people he loved. He could no longer participate in its destruction, the outcome of a policy and a war whose purpose, as proclaimed in Washington, was to save the Viet-Namese people from foreign danger.
65. We have been told here of a previous offer of peace which elicited no response. Here is what The New York Times of 22 September 1967 bad to say about the offer: "The world cannot be expected to take seriously American talk of peace unless it is joined with an act of peace ...".
66. One eminent representative has said here in the Assembly that the greater the power of a nation, the greater its responsibility towards peace. This view is acceptable to us so long as it is not intended solely for the records of the United Nations debates. If the nation concerned wants peace in Viet-Nam, let it announce this new and decisive fact, and declare roundly: "We are stopping the bombing of North Viet-Nam; we are beginning the evacuation of the military forces based in South Viet-Nam; and we propose a round-table conference with the National Liberation Front, North Viet-Nam and all the signatories of the Geneva Agreements of 1954 and 1962.r In our opinion, that is the best way to win the battle of peace in South-East Asia, and perhaps in the world.
67. Once we rule out the vain desire for military victory over a people fiercely determined to survive, realistic political solutions are the only alternative. My delegation considers that the four-point programme of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam and the five-point programme of the National Liberation Front are perfectly sound. Discussions could thus begin in the framework of the Geneva Agreements of 1954 and 1962.
68. At this twenty-second session the Assembly will once again have to deal with another drama, tragic in the extreme because of its political consequences, and for that reason creating an explosive situation. The fifth emergency special session was disappointing and disheartening in its failure to cope with the consequences of Israel’s aggression against the Arab countries. The Assembly accepted the fait accompli, thereby creating a dangerous precedent which must inevitably lead to anarchy and chaos in international relations.
69. The delegation of Mali had hoped that Israel would rise above its military victory and co-operate in seeking a peaceful solution by ordering the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of its troops behind the cease-fire line existing before the outbreak of hostilities, that it would hand over the administration of the occupied territories, and that it would recognize that the Arab people of Palestine too have a right to live in peace in the land of their forefathers.
70. Today the aggressor would fix the price for removing the traces of his aggression. The right of the State of Israel to exist does not depend on the will of the Arab countries, and the fact that the latter are not prepared to recognize it does not, in our opinion, constitute a belligerent act. To accept such a premise would be to create a state of hypertension in Europe and Asia, where States today carry on normal relations with certain Members of this Assembly without any prior recognition.
71. We in Mali do not harbour any anti-Semitic feelings. But we do consider that no territorial gain is admissible where it results from military action. In solemnly reaffirming our adherence to the principle of respect for the sovereignty and integrity of every State, we condemn imperialist wars of annexation. In the interests of peace and security in the Middle East and in the world, my delegation would like to see the Assembly stop dragging its feet and so prevent new conflicts from emerging in this highly charged area. We will support unreservedly any realistic and just proposal to that end.
72. In its concern for the establishment of peace in Asia, in the Middle East, and throughout the world, and for the strengthening of this Organization, my delegation has never ceased to advocate the restoration of the lawful rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations. The presence of the People’s Republic in the Organization is universally recognized. It is impossible to discuss any problem whatever at the international level today without sensing the need for the participation of China. If the primary purpose of the Organization is to preserve peace; it must ensure that there can be a dialogue between all peoples, without any restriction whatever. Every day brings evidence of the need to tackle the real problems of peace together with the People’s Republic of China.
73. Still on the subject of Asia, another world issue which does not serve the cause of peace results from the automatic inclusion in the Assembly’s agenda, year after year, of the so-called Korean question in the absence of the Koreans. In the opinion of my delegation, to prevent the possibility of any recurrence of conflict in that part of the world, it would be necessary forthwith to withdraw the foreign troops occupying South Korea under the aegis of the United Nations and to dissolve the United Nations Commission for the Unification of Korea. The inalienable rights of the Korean people must be respected. The maintenance of peace in the Far East likewise depends on this.
74. Analysis of the gloomy outlook of the present international situation, marked by interference in the internal affairs of States, the substitution of might for right and of violence for negotiation, does not blind me to the universal nature and the irreplaceable value of the ideals of the United Nations. It is on the strength of these ideals that in this Hall men of goodwill adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in resolution 1514 (XV). This historic declaration has been hailed by all peoples still under colonial domination. But we are bound to admit, alas, with the Secretary-General, that seven years after the adoption of resolution 1514 (XV) colonialism is still rampant in its most brutal form in southern Africa, South Arabia and the Pacific Islands.
75. In southern Africa Ian Smith continues to defy the United Nations, with the complicity of the United Kingdom and the support of the capitalist monopolies.The champions of apartheid, encouraged by the Western Powers, are trampling underfoot the basic rights of the Bantu peoples, refusing to implement the decisions of the Security Council and the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Special Committee on Decolonization. There is serious tension in that part of the world.
76. In Aden reason has not prevailed. The United Kingdom, deaf to all proposals, has imposed a puppet government on the people of South Arabia. The refusal of the administrating Power was met by a just revolution on the part of the people of South Arabia, under the leadership of the national liberation movements. At the price of unnecessary suffering, the United Kingdom today bows to the evidence that it is impossible to impose on a people a regime of domination which rides roughshod over its fundamental and inalienable rights.
77. I have tried in the course of this statement to define the views of the Republic of Mali on the problems which divide the Organization. The United Nations can only survive in so far as we prevent it from becoming involved in tense situations and confrontations, and make use of it to preserve the peace of the world.
78. Like the tribe at the dawn of civilization which fiercely guarded the smouldering embers of the dying fire, we must work untiringly to preserve a world peace predicated on the liquidation of imperialist wars of aggression and the suppression of mercenaries, and on vindication of the right of peoples to self-determination; in a word, a peace predicated on international justice and morals.