UN General Assembly
1986

There are several other pressing issues on our agenda. The questions of general and complete disarmament, nuclear weapons, decolonization, the intractable Palestinian issue, Afghanistan, Kampuchea, the festering sore that is apartheid. Western Sahara, the war between Iraq and Iran, the large population of refugees in the world, human rights, international terrorism, Korea, drug trafficking, the delayed independence of the international Trust Territory of Namibia: all these are issues that deeply concern us in Botswana. On the question of disarmament and nuclear weapons, I need only say that those that bear the primary responsibility for the continuing arms race must continuously take into account the concerns of the millions of people around the world who are fearful of the prospect of a nuclear holocaust. It is my delegation's fervent hope that the ongoing talks between the super-Powers will ultimately bear fruit. We also call upon those nations that have acquired nuclear technology to stay within the limits of agreed international safeguards and never to use it for the manufacture of more weapons of mass destruction, so that the billions of dollars now wasted on the accumulation of weapons of mass destruction may be well spent on the betterment of the human condition.