26. Mr. President, the Togolese delegation to the twenty-second session of the General Assembly of the United Nations associates itself with all those which have preceded it at this rostrum in offering you the earnest congratulations of our Government on the occasion of your election as President of this Assembly. In you, Togo salutes and congratulates the gallant and sympathetic country of Romania.
27. We should also like your predecessor, Mr. Abdul Rahman Pazhwak, to know how highly the Togolese delegation appreciated the tact, authority and patience with which he conducted both the work of the twenty-first session of the General Assembly and that of the two special sessions following it.
28. We would be failing in our duty if we did not express also to Secretary-General U Thant our great admiration for his untiring dedication to the cause of all the nations. We realize the difficulties that confront him, but we know that he gives of his best in facing them; and we wish him well in the task.
29. Before presenting my Government's views on the major international issues of today, I should like, if only for your information, to sketch a general outline of the situation in my country since the last session.
30. Following the events which took place in Togo in January 1963, the army at once handed the power over to the civilian body with a view to establishing a policy of national union and reconciliation under which all Togolese could live in peace and harmony. Unfortunately, the previous regime was unable to achieve that policy, vital though it was. On the contrary, many of our countrymen had to seek exile, to say nothing of the prisons crammed full of political prisoners. The leaders themselves engaged in futile rivalries, relegating the higher interests of the nation to the background.
31. This policy could not last. On 21 November 1966, the people rose and demanded that the unpopular Government resign. However, in the interests of stability, without which development is impossible, our young army did not feel that another change should be permitted, and it advised the incumbent Chief of State to review his policy.
32. The response to the appeal was a renewed outbreak of arrests and expulsions, this time affecting the best elements in the country. Many senior officials, heads of departments, were thrown into prison while the administration of the country was completely paralysed. In the face of this untenable situation the army, under popular pressure, found itself obliged to intervene so as to restore calm and create the conditions for a true national reconciliation.
33. Unlike what has happened in other countries, no leader of the former regime has been harmed. At the present time there is not a single political prisoner in our prisons. All the refugees have returned and are participating in the work of national reform. The present governing team, consisting of twelve members — eight civilians appointed solely on the strength of their technical capacity and four military men — has settled down to the essential task of restoring the economic and financial situation of the country. Austerity measures have been introduced, and are reflected in a substantial reduction in State expenditure and considerable cuts in the remuneration paid to political figures.
34. These measures are designed by the new Government to associate political leaders with the effort demanded of all citizens to help to put the country economically back on its feet.
35. But the army has no intention of remaining in power. As soon as circumstances permit, free and democratic elections will be held with a view to setting up a civilian regime. A constitutional committee has already been set up to draft a national Constitution which will be approved by the people.
36. I felt it my duty to outline the domestic situation in my country in this way so that the delegations here present would be informed and possible confusion would be avoided.
37. But all this has not diverted my Government's attention from the major problems troubling the world. We have been watching the events in the Middle East with considerable concern. We maintain friendly relations both with the Arab countries and with Israel. Our duty is to help our friends to settle peacefully any differences which may arise between them, but we feel that the solution to those problems necessarily lies in negotiations.
38. As long as the parties involved are estranged, no solution will be found to this disquieting problem. Our unanimous call for the withdrawal of Israel troops to the positions they held before 5 June 1967 — and this applies equally to the occupied part of the City of Jerusalem — implies the recognition that Israel does have frontiers. Why then refuse to recognize a patent reality?
39. In this matter we wish to see neither victors nor vanquished, but only men of goodwill desirous of preserving the peace which the world desperately needs. We urge both parties to silence for ever, the weapons which destroy the peace and to seek in a spirit of brotherhood a realistic and honest solution to their differences.
40. What is to be said of the appalling and distressing war in Viet-Nam? Is it not time the parties engaged in the conflict realized that they have caused enough suffering to mankind already?
41. For a start, the conditions for peace must be created, and the first of these seems to us to be the cessation of the bombing of North Viet-Nam. Needless to say, during the halt the other party must avoid doing anything, likely to lead to a resumption of the fighting. But stopping the bombing is not enough. After that, all weapons must be silenced to make way for negotiations, in which all the parties engaged in the war would participate; otherwise, the party excluded could scotch any possible solution.
42. We have to recognize that all the conflicts just referred to are closely bound up with the armaments race. This must be stopped; for apart from the fact that it unnecessarily deprives a large part of mankind of increased aid, it endangers man’s precious boon of peace. But stopping the arms race is not sufficient. What is needed is controlled disarmament, and only the realization of the dangers to which they are exposing the world is likely to bring the Powers possessing weapons of mass destruction to their senses. We venture to hope that common sense will in the end prevail over the insanity of men.
43. Nor can I omit mention of the German problem, which we Togolese have many reasons for mentioning specially here. Togo is linked to Germany through history, and the Togolese people cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of a divided German people. A solution to this question must be found at the human level, and it involves self-determination for the German people as a whole.
44. I should now like to deal with some specifically African problems. Africa's firm determination to free itself completely and to achieve unity is not without its difficulties. Internal unrest, the mercenaries in the Congo, latent border disputes, the failure of economic sanctions against the Smith regime, the intensification of apartheid and the defiance of the United Nations by South Africa over South West Africa, are so many thorns in the flesh of African unity.
45. Enough has been said from this rostrum over the years of the evils of apartheid. But while the international danger which this shameful and humiliating practice implies has been recognized, the organization of the struggle to eliminate the scourge has been slow, and today, after twenty years, the results are still meagre and the evil actually seems to be gaining in intensity and scope. Was it not apartheid in South Africa that give birth to Smith's racist regime in Southern Rhodesia?
46. Without wishing to recount the history of the struggle against apartheid, I would recall that at the outset, and for a number of years, the United Nations did no more than address appeals to the Pretoria regime. It was not until 1962 that the General Assembly advocated diplomatic and economic sanctions against South Africa [resolution 1761 (XVII)]. Since then an impressive number of resolutions have been adopted by the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Special Committee on the Policies of Apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa and various ministerial conferences and meetings of the Heads of State of the Organization of African Unity; but with the encouragement given them by the duplicity or acquiescence of those who cannot see beyond their own selfish interests, South Africa has defied all these peaceful measures, and the resolutions have remained a dead letter.
47. Togo has always endeavoured to apply the resolutions of the United Nations; in fact, by Deere s No. 67/36 of 14 February 1967, the Government of Togo implemented Security Council resolution 232 (1966) on selective sanctions against the regime of Southern Rhodesia. One of the articles of this Decree stipulates as follows:
"The Government of the Togolese Republic reaffirms the inalienable rights of the people of Southern Rhodesia to freedom and independence, in accordance with the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples contained in General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), and recognizes the legitimacy of its struggle to ensure the exercise of its rights as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations."
48. On 29 August last, by Decree No. 67/170, the Government of Togo adopted the following measures:
"No diplomatic or consular relations shall be established between the Togolese Government and the Governments of Portugal and South Africa;
"All trade with those countries, direct or indirect, shall be prohibited;
"Shipping and aircraft flying the flags of those countries may not call at Togolese ports; similarly, ships and aircraft belonging to or registered in Togo shall be prohibited from calling at the ports or airports of those countries; transit through the ports or airports of Togo by ships and aircraft flying foreign flags and bound for or coming from Portugal or South Africa shall be prohibited, as shall the sale, dispatch and transit of arms, munitions of all kinds, military vehicles and oil products;
"The issue of transit or entry visas for the territory of the Togolese Republic shall be prohibited to nationals of Portugal and the Republic of South Africa, except in special circumstances at the discretion of the Togolese authorities."
49. The Togolese Government considers that measures of this nature, if sincerely applied, should have a distinctly favourable effect on the cause we are upholding. But if they should prove inadequate, logic would suggest that enforcement measures should be taken, under Chapter VI of the Charter, in order to bring the recalcitrants to heel.
50. The success of the recent Summit meeting at Kinshasa has demonstrated that Africa was able to rise above pettiness and acknowledge the real troubles which threaten it, namely, the islands of backwardness represented by Southern Rhodesia, South Africa, Angola, Mozambique, and so on.
51. The Charter of the United Nations stipulates that for the maintenance of international peace and security it is necessary to "develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples".
52. This principle, embodied in the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, constitutes the essential condition for the establishment of a real community of sovereign and equal nations. The acceptance of the principle without qualification has made it possible for peoples of Asia, Latin America and Africa to accede to international sovereignty in less than a decade.
53. Despite this gratifying trend, we must still deplore the lack of realism shown by certain backward-looking elements which are trying to row against the tide of history. But the tide cannot be turned back, and whatever happens, Africa will resolutely march forward, trampling down every obstacle in its path till it reaches its ultimate goal, which is the liberation of the whole continent.
54. But real independence implies first and foremost economic independence. The trend in the world economic situation has not been very favourable for the under-developed countries. As the Secretary- General pointed out in his annual report [A/6701, p. 101], their growth rate has again declined, and their currency reserves increased proportionately less than in 1965. The gap between the prosperous and the poor countries continues to widen.
55. But the United Nations is alive to the gravity of the situation brought about by an economic imbalance which has always existed in the world, and has taken steps to cope with it. One of the measures was the first United Nations Development Decade, instituted by the General Assembly in resolution 1710 (XVI) of 19 December 1961. Unfortunately, now that it is in its second half, we are obliged to recognize that the Decade has not entirely come up to expectations. It is hardly likely that the targets of the Decade can be reached by 1970 even if we redouble our efforts. But the fact that its objectives are almost universally accepted is heartening, since it draws the attention of the Organization to the problems of the Third World. We must analyse the way things moved over the first five years if we are to improve the results of the second five years. And moreover, we must begin at once to think of the future and make plans for the period following the Decade. Any proposal along these lines from the Committee for Development Planning will be studied with the utmost interest by the Togolese delegation.
56. Another measure applied by the Organization to promote better understanding between producers and consumers is the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). This understanding should be evident in all spheres of trading in the form of the will of all the States concerned to co-operate.
57. UNCTAD has studied problems arising out of trade in commodities, whose prices must be made remunerative and stable for the producer. Thus a United Nations Cocoa Conference was held in New York under its auspices from 23 May to 23 June 1966. Unfortunately, the Conference was unable to take any decision calculated to reassure the producers. A second conference held at the time of the twenty-first session of the Assembly likewise foundered on the question of minimum prices and buffer stocks at the very moment when the producing countries were having an optimistic resolution adopted in the Second Committee of the General Assembly. Mr. Prebisch, the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, in a statement to the Second Committee on 9 December 1966 [1096th meeting] did not hesitate to point out the bad faith shown by certain cocoa-consuming countries in their attitude towards an agreement. The Lagos Conference, from which we expected so much in regard to the settlement of this problem, was also to prove disappointing. As a cocoa-producing country, Togo urgently appeals from this rostrum to the countries in question to give proof of a better spirit of co-operation in future negotiations.
58. Last year we established [resolution 2152 (XXI)] a specialized agency in the field of industrial development. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is designed to supplement the machinery already existing in the economic field and to enable the under-developed countries to take advantage of the experience of the other countries so as to improve their economies as part of a policy developed at the world level. UNIDO is still too new to warrant passing judgement on its operation. Its success is conditional upon the flow of private or public capital towards the poor countries. The latter can do nothing, however hard they try, if they are always faced with a critical inadequacy of funds; and the net flow of public aid from the industrialized countries to the under-developed countries is at a standstill, while the debt service charges payable by the latter countries are steadily increasing. That is why my delegation is particularly interested in a detailed examination at the present session of agenda item 42: "External financing of economic development of the developing countries".
59. However, a measure designed to alleviate the burden on the poor countries was adopted by the Assembly at its last session [resolution 2186 (XXI)], with the establishment of the United Nations Capital Development Fund, its purpose being:
"To assist developing countries in the development of their economies by supplementing existing sources of capital assistance by means of grants and loans, particularly long-term loans made free of interest or at low interest rates."
60. Unfortunately, the Fund exists in name only, because of opposition by the great Powers to its establishment. I should like to draw the kind attention of those Powers, which are already giving us appreciable bilateral assistance, to the fact that the United Nations Capital Development Fund is intended merely to supplement, and not to replace, the disinterested aid they give us. We therefore appeal to their goodwill in order that this Fund may rapidly become a reality.
61. I should not like to close this economic section without referring to the forthcoming UNCTAD Conference to be held at New Delhi. All the developing countries attach special importance to this Conference, at which rich countries and poor countries will once again have to study the problems connected with their co-operation in the economic field. We hope that goodwill on all sides will bring concrete results. The stability so indispensable in the world today depends on this.
62. I have come to the end of a statement whose sole purpose was to present the views of my Government on the various problems with which the world is
dangerously confronted. The problems are many, serious and difficult. No doubt their solution calls for courage, patience, and sometimes self-denial. But the Member States must give the Organization all the authority it needs in order to grapple with these problems and thus to fulfil the hopes of the peoples of the world.
63. Togo has always had faith in the Organization, and will spare no effort to make its modest contribution towards strengthening its authority.