UN General Assembly
1960

115. The indications are that the war will be resumed even more fiercely and bloodshed will increase. There is now a vast chasm between the President and the Algerian nationalists struggling for their birthright of independence. The President wants negotiations only on the issue of a cease-fire and envisages self-determination in the form of elections under the supervision of French armed forces. The Algerian nationalists understandably cannot accept these conditions. It is difficult to imagine that the Algerian nationalists, after six years of revolution against the French, would ever agree to exercise their vote under the sole control of the French army. The only way out of this impasse seems to be to seek to implement the principle of self-determination through the agency of some form of international action. However, my delegation still entertains the hope that the two parties concerned will enter into "pourparlers", as to whose desirability there has been general consensus of opinion in this world Organization, before any internationally supervised referendum is envisaged. President de Gaulle, who is responsible for France's great achievements in other parts of Africa, can surely evolve a formula for Algeria, a formula based on the same principle of self-determination that has been applied to the other territories.