UN General Assembly
1962

17. In the introduction to his annual report, the Secretary-General tells us that "The core of the Congo problem is that of the secession of Katanga" [A/5201/ Add.1, page 1] — a problem born, in our view, of the interplay of power politics and vested interests. We in the Sudan have no sympathy whatsoever for Katanga's claim to secession, because it is a claim that is as devoid of any vestige of legality as it is empty of any moral content. The Congo was born as an independent sovereign State within the boundaries of what was then the Belgian Congo, existing immediately before the date of independence. It was within the full extent of those boundaries that the new State was recognized by the world community. It was to help preserve that territorial unity, so recognized, that the United Nations entered the Congo. All the General Assembly and Security Council resolutions pertaining to the Congo are consistent in upholding this principle of the preservation of its territorial integrity.