UN General Assembly
1964

108. On our other flank we have the problem child of Africa. Some people want to create the impression that the Congolese are not helping themselves. This is not true. Since their independence, four and a half years ago, they have been valiantly struggling against impossible odds. Extraneous elements never left the country. Under the guise of legality, mercenaries and foreign troops have plagued the country since June 1964, when the United Nations forces left. Blind vested interests made the whole affair look as if it were a military problem. Every time a sane voice is raised in favour of stability it is told that the country is free and sovereign and has the right to call on friends and hirelings to help it. Nobody is questioning these premises or even thinking of doing so, but we, the members of the Organization of African Unity, were also called upon to help the legally constituted Government. Like honest, loyal friends, we responded to that call and worked out proposals that were accepted by our sister country's legal representative. The fact of the matter is that none of those proposals has yet been implemented. The mercenaries are still there, the cease-fire has not been effected and all efforts at national reconciliation have bean frustrated. And let us face facts: there are no solutions but these and there is only one man who can effect them — the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.