134. Mr. President, on behalf of the Government of the Somali Republic it is my privilege to join with my fellow representatives in congratulating you on your election as President of this session of the General Assembly. We are confident that your wisdom and guidance will greatly contribute to the success of the session, and my delegation pledges to do its full share to make the session a constructive one.
135. At the beginning of another session of the General Assembly, I should first of all like to reaffirm the faith of the Government and people of the Somali Republic in the United Nations. We firmly believe that this Organization, with all its imperfections, still represents the hope, and the possibility, that the world community will come to accept those principles which alone will ensure mankind’s survival. The principles of the United Nations Charter represent the attempt of the nations to develop a new ethos for international morality. This we all know, but it is necessary to remind ourselves that such an attempt needs many decades of patient trial and error for its realization. The attitudes of the past will not disappear immediately. Exploitation of the weak by the strong and the principle that might is right are evils which are still with us. Only a few months ago the Arab-Israeli conflict led to a situation where the principle that the fait accompli is its own justification was allowed to hold sway and is still supported by some Powers.
136. However, the long historical view can afford us some comfort. A hundred and fifty years ago the slave trade could be profitably carried on by men who considered themselves to be of good conscience, and slavery formed the basis of many well-established societies. Only a small group in one corner of the globe questioned its moral validity. Today slavery is universally condemned. Again, it is only in the present century that the idea of the worth and of the rights of the common man has gained practical recognition. And so it is possible to be optimistic about the survival and the unquestioned acceptance of the principles of the United Nations Charter, It is to those principles that my delegation will turn during the course of this session in its attempt to contribute to the solution of the many problems which we are called upon to consider here.
137. In our interdependent world no nation can be concerned solely with its internal or regional affairs. Turning to the world scene as a whole, the war in Viet-Nam continues to present itself as the major threat to peace and security. In the face of the ever-mounting escalation of this devastating war, there has grown a virtually unanimous conviction that the war must stop. We believe that the United States has an international and moral obligation to initiate those first steps which can create the conditions necessary for the opening of negotiations on the basis of the Geneva Agreements of 1954. Consonant with the general attitude of my country, my delegation joins with all others who emphasize that the right of self-determination belongs to the people of Viet-Nam and that they alone can enforce that right. We believe that if they were relieved of the burden of a war which epitomizes the struggle between two opposing world ideologies, the Viet-Namese people would be able to turn their energies towards the building of a unified State. We believe also that they alone have the right to decide what form that State should take.
138. The ideal approach to this problem would be to bring it before the United Nations. Unfortunately there are procedural obstacles to such a course of action because some of the parties to the dispute are not Members of our Organization. It would appear to my delegation that, under these circumstances, the least that Member States of the United Nations can do is to direct individual and collective appeals to the parties concerned to resolve the conflict by negotiations.
139. The lesson to be drawn from the present inability of the United Nations to take a more positive role in the Viet-Nam conflict is that the Organization will continue to be ineffective in matters of such magnitude if it does not apply the principle of universality of membership. I refer, of course, to the exclusion of the People’s Republic of China from its rightful place in the United Nations. It is illogical and against the interest of the world community to deny the Government of the most populous nation participation in the deliberations of this Assembly and in the other organs of the United Nations. We hope that this session of the Assembly will finally correct this situation. Not only the problem of Viet-Nam but also the problems of general disarmament and those relating to nuclear armaments cannot be approached realistically by the United Nations without the presence of this world Power.
140. The situation in the Middle East provides as great a threat to world peace as that in Viet-Nam. It was a matter of great regret to my Government that the fifth emergency special session of the General Assembly did not accept the resolution put forward by the non-aligned States as a basis for a just settlement. During the present session, my delegation will again support those who seek a solution on the basis of the principles that are contained in that resolution. The inescapable responsibility of the Assembly in the eyes of my delegation is to express its strong condemnation of Israel's occupation of Arab territory. Only by doing so will it uphold the principle that territorial expansion brought about by war is inadmissible and that the use of territorial gains to exact political concessions is equally inadmissible. It is hard to think of a more dangerous precedent on the international scene than the one which the Israelis would like to make, namely, that an aggressor only needs to be successful in order to enjoy the fruits of his aggression. My delegation will also continue to add support to the almost unanimous body of opinion which specifically condemned Israel's illegal action in incorporating the old city with the rest of Jerusalem. The United Nations must remain of one mind in this matter, and not be misled by clever but spurious arguments which are based on false sentiment rather than on true principles.
141. The situation in the Middle East cannot be touched on without some mention of the question of the Arab refugees. It is this problem more than any other which ensured that bitterness, tension and violence would remain endemic in the area. In the recent conflict, as in that of 1948, Arab families fled from the dangers of war. Many of those families now find themselves dispossessed of their homes and their fields. The weight of world opinion has prevented the Israeli authorities from closing the door entirely to people who are trying to return to their homes. But the prospect of return remains small for the majority of those refugees who were unable to make use of the limited facilities for return in the limited period of time allotted for this purpose. Israel's illegal occupation of Jordanian territory has thus compounded the problems and increased the bitterness created by the existing refugee situation, It is a clear illustration of that Zionist policy which has already dispossessed so many of the Arab people and which aims at continuing the process.
142. At the height of the recent Arab-Israeli war the threat to international peace engendered by the conflict brought home to everyone the necessity of dealing with the basic problems which have given rise to two wars within eleven years. In those dangerous moments of crisis, certain major Powers admitted that in leaving the problem of the Palestine Arab refugees unsolved the United Nations had failed to shoulder one of its gravest responsibilities. It is the earnest hope of my delegation that the forthcoming debate on the Middle East situation will result in a sincere effort to get to the roots of this problem.
143. In the past few years there has been little cause for satisfaction about the progress of this Organization towards the realization of its disarmament goals. My delegation is therefore pleased to note that there have been encouraging developments in the field of disarmament since the twenty-first session of the General Assembly. However far in the future the prospect of general and complete disarmament may lie, the Treaty on the use of outer space, the tabling by the United States and the Soviet Union of a draft treaty on non-proliferation and the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America are all significant steps towards this goal.
144. My delegation hopes that this effort on the part of non-nuclear Powers will receive the necessary support and co-operation of the nuclear Powers, who must now sign a protocol pledging themselves to respect a denuclearized Latin America in order that the treaty may come into force. We believe that this provision is a useful step towards the attainment of that balance of responsibilities which should exist between nuclear and non-nuclear Powers. At the present time the scales are weighted in favour of the nuclear Powers who are asking the non-nuclear States to refrain from acquiring nuclear weapons but are not proposing to cut down or do away with their own nuclear armouries. Under such conditions, guarantees that the nuclear Powers will not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear States are essential.
145. We look forward to having the significance and the scope of the Latin American treaty further explained by our Latin American colleagues during this session. The fact that they have been able to agree on such a treaty and the elucidations we shall hear from them will give added impetus for an analogous treaty for Africa, and we hope that the General Assembly will express its support for such initiative by the countries of Africa.
146. These items on the credit side of the disarmament ledger are not, however, cause for complacency. There are still the larger debits to be considered. All sides decry the armaments race, and yet the armaments race continues unabated. The reason for this strange phenomenon is that nations are shackled by fear and suspicions. These fears and suspicions constantly breed counter-fears and counter-suspicions, and so the spiral of armaments and other war preparations on land, below the seas and in the skies grows constantly higher. All this uses up vast manpower, an enormous proportion of scientific talent, and gigantic amounts of money and economic resources — all of which are urgently needed for productive purposes.
147. My delegation believes that the solution to this seeming impasse lies in the full use of the provisions of the United Nations Charter. On the immediately practical level the Charter provides alternatives for the use or threat of force, and machinery and methods for the application of those alternatives. That machinery will obviously function better if peace-keeping operations can be strengthened and placed on a regular basis and if fact-finding methods and methods for the peaceful settlement of disputes can be improved. It is the hope of my delegation that progress in those fields will not be too long delayed.
148. The Somali Republic, as an African nation, is bound to be greatly concerned with and influenced by the situation in Africa. I shall therefore invite the representatives to look at some African problems.
149. In southern Africa we are faced with an apparently intractable problem — that of the powerful white minority groups in South Africa, South West Africa, the Portuguese colonies and Southern Rhodesia which unjustly impose their will upon the indigenous inhabitants of those territories and deprive them of their social and political rights. The ruling minorities are as entrenched in their belief in their ugly racist policies as the Nazis were entrenched in their belief in their racial superiority. Hitler's overweening ambition gave the world an opportunity to rid itself of his evil philosophy, but what Can the United Nations do to put down apartheid; to carry out its responsibility towards South West Africa and to gain their rights for the majority races of Southern Rhodesia and the Portuguese territories?
150. Everyone here knows what can be done and what is not being done by those who bear the heaviest responsibility in this matter. South Africa's traditional trading partners continue to increase their trade with and investment in South Africa, in spite of the resolutions passed by the Assembly condemning such actions; and it is an open secret that Southern Rhodesia still manages to carry on a great part of its normal trading activities under various subterfuges which enable the illegal régime of that Territory to bypass the sanctions imposed by the Security Council. The situation in Southern Rhodesia is likely to become even more intolerable for its African population if a move to introduce apartheid measures is successful. The responsibility of the administering Power, in this case the United Kingdom, and of the United Nations to end the illegal régime in Southern Rhodesia has therefore become even greater.
151. The United Nations is taking another approach to those problems; that of educating world public opinion by the wide dissemination of information about apartheid so that, hopefully, politicians and rulers will be pressured by their peoples into the right attitudes and courses of action. But this is a long, slow process and in the meanwhile hundreds of thousands of Africans suffer the most shocking physical and mental indignities. My Government is aware that the carrying out of the relevant General Assembly resolutions on apartheid is not a simple matter for some countries whose economies rely heavily on trade with southern Africa. But it seems to us that no attempt is being made by those countries even to consider alternatives or to enter into consultations on an international level to see what might possibly be done. This negative attitude was illustrated by the refusal of South Africa's main trading partners to accept the General Assembly's invitation to sit on the Special Committee on the policies of apartheid so that the deliberations of that body could be much more meaningful by the participation of those most closely involved.
152. The imperialist policies of the Republic of South Africa are at the heart of the problems of southern Africa. All the facets of that problem will remain intractable unless many Members of this Assembly are prepared to stop those activities which support apartheid. The charge of hypocrisy has often been made in this hall against South Africa's trading partners, and there have unfortunately been no new developments to invalidate that charge.
153. I turn now to a comparatively new phenomenon in Africa — and a most undesirable one. My delegation would like to add its voice to those which have condemned the activities of the so-called mercenaries. These despicable adventurers who openly boast that they are in the "killing business" believe that they can murder and terrorize African people with impunity. What is even more incredible is that some Governments obliquely encourage their nefarious activities. The mercenaries could not remain in existence if the Governments of their countries of origin or other Governments concerned would exercise appropriate controls. No part of Africa must be a hunting ground for such international gangsterism. It is an intolerable spectacle. We hope that this Assembly will pay due attention to this serious and disturbing development.
154. Before I finish, I should like to turn briefly to developments which have taken place in French Somaliland, where certain policies of the administering Power have caused deep concern to the people and Government of the Somali Republic, especially since the summer of 1966.
155. As the representatives will recall, at. that time it was announced that a referendum would be held to decide the future status of the Territory. By December of last year, the conditions under which the referendum was to be held formed the object of serious deliberations and of a formal resolution of the Assembly - resolution 2228 (XXI) of 12 December 1966. The referendum was eventually held in the spring of 1967 — unfortunately, without regard being paid to the wishes and requests of the Assembly and, indeed, without regard for many of the basic requirements for a true and just determination of the wishes of the people.
156. Measures taken by the administering Power included the expulsion into the border areas of my country of almost 10,000 inhabitants of that Territory. They have not been allowed to return to their homeland and still have to be maintained by my Government. The Somali Republic is thus directly affected by the developments in that Territory. Altogether, the resulting tension produces adverse repercussions in my country. The Assembly will receive the report of the Committee of Twenty-Four on the issue of French Somaliland. I therefore limit myself at this point to reiterating that my Government is ready to find a solution, either through direct negotiations with the French Government or in any other manner, which will first of all end the plight of those unfortunate expellees.
157. The French Somaliland question is connected with a larger issue. Several hundreds of thousands of people who are ethnically Somalis live to the west, north and south beyond the borders of the Somali Republic, and are desirous of self-determination. This desire existed long before the creation of the Somali Republic in 1960, National consciousness is not an attitude that can be artificially infused within a few years. Throughout the period of colonialism during which the Somali people were divided, they held high the spirit of national consciousness.
158. Yet the false impression has been created, and continues to be fostered by some, that the desire for self-determination of the Somalis in the territories adjacent to my country is due to some improper influence by the Somali Republic, and that my country has expansionist ambitions. Nothing could be further from the truth.
159. No Government of the Somali Republic has ever denied its sympathy for those Somalis who seek to exercise their right to self-determination. But every Government has emphasized the peaceful intentions of my country. A few weeks ago, when our new Prime Minister, Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, entered office, he made a clear and straightforward declaration of policy on these matters.
160. The essence of that policy is that the Somali Republic harbours no intention to annex the territory of any State whatsoever, nor to expand into any territory. Moreover, while the Somali Government supports the desire for self-determination of Somalis living in the areas bordering the Somali Republic, it is animated by the sincere desire to leave no avenue unused which will improve mutual relations with the Governments directly concerned.
161. As regards its over-all foreign policy, my Government continues on the road followed by the Republic since its re-emergence as an independent nation. It is the policy of positive neutrality. That, in the words of my Prime Minister, means much more than passive non-alignment in the differences between the great world power blocs. It means the determination to contribute to the easing of all international tensions by positive and creative actions, designed to promote peace. I hope that my remarks today have illustrated this spirit.