I should like to congratulate Ambassador von Wechmar on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly. It is a source of particular satisfaction to Ireland because of his character and abilities and because of our regard for his country. Through his long years of experience at the United Nations, he has learned the advantage of patient negotiations in the solution of conflict, and I am sure that he will apply that experience in guiding our work.
216.	I should also like to thank his predecessor in this onerous office, Mr. Salim of the United Republic of Tanzania, for the patience, competence and understanding with which he presided over several sessions of this General Assembly.
217.	To the Government and people of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, I offer our warmest congratulations and our wishes for every success for their future well-being and prosperity as our one hundred and fifty-fourth Member.
218.	I should like to express, too, my Government's continued confidence in the Secretary-General, Mr. Kurt Wald- heim, whose deep concern for this Organization and for the preservation of international peace and security is so absolutely manifest in his latest report on the work of the Organization.
219.	Thirty-five years ago the founders of the United Nations, speaking in the name of the peoples of the world, set themselves to build a new framework of international order from the ruins of war. They drafted a Charter which speaks for rights and human dignity, of peace and security for peoples, of tolerance and social progress for all.
220.	That is a language which expresses universal human aspirations and ideals. But it did not then, and it does not yet, describes very well the reality of human life for all of the world's peoples.
221.	It is now more than a generation since these aims were proclaimed in the name of mankind. Over that period the sweep and flow of human history has quickened. A world political system of independent nations has emerged, with an interdependent world economy. There are no more unknown or uncharted areas on the globe.
222.	It is evident today that humanity is one—and aware of itself as such. Global travel is faster and sure as never before, and communication is easy. An event of importance in one part of the world is quickly reported in all and generates immediate and varying reactions which are in turn reported throughout the world. Human technology and mastery by man of his environment have increased dramatically; and—symbol of this mastery—man for the first time has left this planet.
223.	But there is also a darker side. Human nature has not changed. Tension and conflict are still a part of human life in society, and a global society must meet global problems and face global dangers.
224.	It is this most important point which we must now grasp and act on, here and elsewhere, not simply in what we say but in our actions. What might once have been separate or local problems are now linked and interconnected, so that they arouse a common concern and pose a common danger.
225.	We may have mastered the human environment. But we have also touched the limits of our planet and of its resources. We see now that life on earth—all life—is fragile and that it will be for humanity to decide through its actions whether to conserve or to destroy it.
226.	We may have developed global communications. But our easy communication highlights inequity within the emerging world system and makes injustice more evident to the deprived, who, in their new-found solidarity, will no longer accept it or tolerate it.
227.	We may have advanced our technology in the developed world. But it is evident that this more prosperous part of the world simply cannot maintain indefinitely that disproportionate claim on the world's resources which has sustained its present way of life.
228.	We have seen the growth of a single international system which is global in character and almost universal in membership. But in a global system conflict, too, however limited in origin, can have a global dimension. What in another time might have been local rivalries within a region now send tremors throughout the international system, which is already tensed and polarized with major Powers and alliances in confrontation. It is true that we have avoided major war—though many have suffered in lesser conflicts over a generation. But we live always with a fearful paradox. Peace, to the extent that we have known it, seems to depend on a constant refinement of the means and a constant emphasis on the readiness, within minutes, to fight a major and disastrous war.
229.	There is indeed a daunting list of problems before us: injustice and inequity within the world economy; unfair division of the world's resources and lack of care for their conservation; polarization and confrontation between major Powers; the steady growth of armaments, dangerous in themselves and wasteful in their diversion of resources from human welfare; violation of human rights and lack of concern for large-scale human suffering and the problems of refugees; and conflict and confrontation within regions, which could have wide and dangerous consequences for all.
230.	Those who founded the United Nations must have had some feeling for these global problems as they drew up the Charter, but they cannot have envisaged in any detail the kind of dangers which we now face. How can we respond to these dangers? That represents the challenge of today.
231.	The United Nations as we inherit it is an Organization which comprises States and groups of States which differ greatly in outlook, culture, ideology and political orientation; and fundamental to its structure are the principles of national sovereignty and respect for non-intervention. These facts set limits to our capacity this Organization to meet the global challenges we face. Bur die United Nations itself and the family of economic, social and other organizations linked with it do provide an essential framework of world order, and the Charter, if taken as a living instrument, does set guiding principles and provides the procedures to achieve that justice which is necessary if any order is to endure.
232.	The United Nations, it has been said, can be seen either as a mirror which faithfully reflects the world's problems, confrontations and paralyses of will; or it can be seen as a living instrument, an Organization, a set of procedures which is more than the sum of its parts, where problems can be faced and tensions eased. It is for each of us represented here to decide whether we shall use the Organization as such an instrument and develop fully its potential for resolving conflict or simply allow it to remain a mirror which faithfully reflects our quarrels but does nothing to resolve them.
233.	The truth is that peace and justice are not static achievements. They require constant effort and a constant commitment by every nation to the effort to attain and maintain them. Above all, they require willingness by each of us to apply in our own case the same principles we so freely ask others to apply in issues where we are not involved.
234.	The United Nations has had many successful achievements as it has evolved in 35 years from an Organization representing a limited group of States that fought a war together to one that is now almost universal in membership. In this twentieth anniversary year of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, it is fitting that we recall the indispensable role that the United Nations played in helping to bring so many States to independence in a relatively short space of time. As a country which itself regained its independence in this century, Ireland has welcomed this development. We particularly welcome the presence in our midst of Zimbabwe, which has at last emerged to independence following troubled years in which it was a special concern of the United Nations. We believe that the people of the few remaining colonial Territories must be enabled to exercise their right to self- determination without delay.
235.	Another achievement for the Organization has been the considerable progress made towards agreement at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. It seems that, subject to the resolution of a small but very important number of issues, it should be possible to complete negotiations and adopt a convention on the law of the sea next year. The Conference has shown that, given a willingness to compromise, it is possible to negotiate successfully on a complex range of issues in a forum in which all Member States are represented. If, as we confidently expect, it can now be concluded successfully, it will mark a really historic achievement in agreed control of a large part of man's environment.
236.	Another heartening development in recent years has been the growth of co-operation in many fields among groups of States on a regional basis. Such co-operation makes it possible to give substance to United Nations ideals and is in full harmony with broader co-operation on the world front. Indeed, it can increase the pace and scope of such co-operation on a world level to have functioning co-operation on a regional basis. I might mention that, in Europe, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe process, if sustained and developed, can be of particular significance in reaching towards world peace and is a practical example of regional co-operation within Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals.
237.	However, despite these achievements, the past year has not been a hopeful one for all of us who believe in the development of an international society in which peace and security should be maintained by international agreement and disputes settled by peaceful means and through negotiation. The 1980s, which promised to be a decade of political and economic negotiation and co-operation, unfortunately threaten to be one of conflict and confrontation. Detente is threatened by new and growing tensions, and there is a danger that the fragile achievements in the area of arms control and disarmament may be swept aside in a new round of the arms race.
238.	Economic growth has been replaced, unfortunately, by economic stagnation. The efforts to establish a just and equitable international economic order fall far short of what is needed. Inflation and threats to the continuity of supply of crucial raw materials have added to the burdens of rich and poor nations alike.
239.	A major crisis has erupted in the region of southern Asia as a result of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Within the last few days, a new armed conflict has broken out between Iran and Iraq, adding to the instabilities and tensions which that region has known for more than 30 years. We here are all fully aware of how serious that conflict could be in its human and economic consequences for those directly involved and in the wider dangers it poses for all of us. We must feel some concern, I believe, at how little we in this Organization have been able to do directly so far to achieve an end to the fighting and a settlement of the conflict in accordance with the principles of the Charter.
240.	Yet it does no good to despair. There is no alternative to the attempt to find solutions through negotiations to the manifold problems which we face, however intractable these problems may seem to be.
241.	Agreement to negotiate is, of course, not enough. There must first be the will on all sides to negotiate seriously and with the intention of reaching agreements which deal with the real problems and issues at stake and which will be more than mere expedients.
242.	Secondly, all must be prepared to exercise restraint in their actions. It is difficult to expect that negotiations can be conducted with any chance of success if any of those involved attempt unilaterally to change the situation to their advantage.
243.	Thirdly, the search for agreed solutions through negotiations requires that we do not ignore injustices for so long that those who suffer those injustices are forced to bring their grievances to our attention by other means. It is sobering to reflect how many of the problems with which this Assembly has to deal could have been resolved at an early stage if sufficient awareness and generosity had been shown at the right time and the appropriate steps had been taken.
244.	This is not to say that the United Nations must be involved in every dispute, or, indeed, that the form of its involvement should not vary, as it has, depending on the circumstances. What it is true to say is that we will not come close to resolving many of the issues with which we are faced unless we use to the full the flexible and varied means which the United Nations provides.
245.	Since Ireland joined the United Nations 25 years ago we have acted consistently in this belief. I hope and believe that our contributions over the years in this direction have been constructive. It is with this belief in the resolution of disputes through negotiations and with a commitment to accept in our own case the principles we commend to others that I now go on to speak in more detail about some of the major issues confronting this Assembly.
246.	On the issue of disarmament, I referred a few moments ago to the danger of a new round in the arms race. There are now more nuclear weapons than ever in the world. Their destructive power is multiplied and they have become a permanent feature of the security policies of major Powers and their allies. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to envisage any rational political calculus in which the use of nuclear weapons could play a part. Indeed, deterrence has been based on the assumption that a nuclear war would result in the certain and mutual destruction of the adversaries. None the less, we now face the danger that technological imperatives, combined with political mistrust and the inherent pessimism of military planners, may bring this period of relative nuclear stability to a close. The development and possible deployment of new weapons and the strategic doctrines that go with them will not only greatly complicate arms control negotiations but may even inhibit the exercise of restraint in future crises.
247.	It would be ironic; indeed, if, in the interests of the increased security of the nuclear States, the world were subjected to a new generation of weaponry, which would in reality diminish the security of all.
248.	But the nuclear arms race is not confined to the nuclear Powers or to the development of more deadly and more accurate weaponry. During the past year, the danger of the further spread of these weapons to countries which do not as yet possess them has been increased. My Government must register its very profound regret and disappointment at the outcome of the second Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The system of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to which Ireland has had the honour to adhere since its inception, has helped to hold the ring and prevent the further spread of nuclear weapons. We fear that the unsuccessful outcome of the Geneva Conference will make the task even more difficult.
249.	It would, of course, be unjust to lay the blame for the arms race solely on nuclear weapons and the nuclear Powers. So-called conventional weapons have killed 25 million people since the Second World War. The destructive power of such weapons is today vastly greater than in the Second World War, and the greater part of military expenditure is devoted to conventional arms. One generation of sophisticated conventional weapons follows another in rapid succession, consuming enormous sums of money, a fraction of which world contribute so much to relieving hunger and disease throughout the developing world.
250.	It is easy, I know, to talk about disarmament in the abstract. It is easy to deplore the arms race, to urge its immediate end and to call for general and complete disarmament. What we really need and need urgently are concrete measures that are practicable in the short term and bring immediate results that all can see, and I will make some suggestions in this regard.
251.	First, the SALT Treaty should be ratified. In our view, this would be of great significance in restraining com-petition among the major Powers in the further development of nuclear weapons and in helping to promote the reduction of existing nuclear arsenals.
252.	Secondly, we need a comprehensive test-ban treaty or, failing that, a moratorium on nuclear testing, which would help efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. The existing Non-Proliferation Treaty regime, in particular, would be strengthened by such a development.
253.	Thirdly, there should be an agreement on ending the production of fissionable material for nuclear weapons. This would also help the cause of non-proliferation.
254.	Fourthly, we need an agreement or international convention to insure non-nuclear States against the use or threat of nuclear weapons.
255.	There are, of course, other issues on which agreement would be of great practical and political benefit: for example, a chemical weapons convention, an agreement on the reduction of military budgets and steps to prohibit the development and deployment of new weapons of mass destruction.
256.	Turning to the question of peace-keeping, if on the one hand the hopes of the framers of the Charter in regard to the maintenance of peace and security 'lave not all been realized, on the other the United Nations has developed over the years the useful concept of peace-keeping operations. The introduction of peace-keeping forces into an area where there is a dispute does not of itself resolve the dispute but it does provide a respite during which parties to a dispute can seek a more permanent resolution of their differences. The concept and practice of peace-keeping is still evolving, and each new generation provides fresh insights for the conduct of future operations.
257.	United Nations peace-keeping has become the political counterpart of United Nations programmes in the economic and social fields, in which assistance is offered on a disinterested basis to those who need it. Ireland has consistently supported the development of peace-keeping and has participated without interruption since 1958 in United Nations peace-keeping operations. We believe that tl.is is one of the practical ways in which small nations can help in the task of maintaining international peace and security.
258.	The Middle East continues to be an area of great concern which presents serious dangers for international peace and security. Foreign Minister Thorn of Luxembourg, as President of the Council of Ministers of the European Economic Community, has already set out in detail the policies of the nine Community countries on this issue. He has outlined the progress of the contact mission which he undertook on behalf of the nine countries to the Middle East in recent months to see how Europe could best contribute to the achievement of a just and comprehensive peace in that area.
259.	None the less, I should like to call attention to two principles which were stressed by the Heads of State and Government of the nine member States of the European Community in their declaration at Venice on 13 June 1980 and which, in the opinion of my Government, are essential elements in a peace settlement. These are the right to existence and to security of all the States in the region, including Israel, and the requirement of justice for all the peoples involved, which includes the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people within the framework of a peace settlement.
260.	It is only by reconciling these two principles through negotiation that a comprehensive, just and durable settlement can be found. Such negotiation must involve all the parties concerned, including the PLO. No one is so sanguine as to imagine that this is an easy task but, equally, no one can doubt that the task must be faced or that the Middle East is a vital area where conflicts are likely to have repercussions on a world-wide scale. It is therefore essential for international peace and security that a settlement in the Middle East be achieved, no matter how discouraging the obstacles may appear to be.
261.	Some of these obstacles indeed are inherent in the conflicting rights and aspirations of the different parties. Some arise from intransigent positions taken by one or another party and from unacceptable actions such as the establishment of settlements by Israel in occupied territories and the claim to alter the character and status of Jerusalem.
262.	I cannot leave the question of the Middle East without reference to the tragic situation in Lebanon. My country remains firmly committed to the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon and looks forward to the day when a Lebanese government will be in a position to exercise its authority fully over all its territory.
263.	Ireland currently contributes some 650 troops to UNIFIL. I do not need to remind the Assembly of the difficult circumstances faced by UNIFIL which have resulted in loss of life for some contingents, including that of my own country, in brutal circumstances. UNIFIL remains unable to extend its control over the entire area entrusted to it in southern Lebanon. As the Secretary-General notes in his report on the work of the Organization:
"A main factor in this situation is the policy of the Government of Israel and its support of the de facto forces . .
He also refers to:
"The disturbed conditions in other parts of southern Lebanon, including the presence of Palestinian and other armed elements, and the general political and security situation in Lebanon . .
264.	Despite these difficulties, my country is convinced that over the two and a half years of its existence, UNIFIL has made a significant contribution towards the prevention of an outbreak of general hostilities in the Middle East by reason of its presence in southern Lebanon. At the same time, if a peacekeeping force is to operate, it must be given the necessary conditions to do so effectively: in particular, it must function with the consent of all parties and be allowed freedom of movement throughout the area assigned to it, and in conditions of adequate security for its personnel. I hope that all concerned will reflect carefully on the consequences of any further actions that may make UNIFIL's task more difficult.
265.	I must also join with the Secretary-General in expressing my concern about UNIFIL's financial problems, caused by the policy of some Member States in withholding their assessed share of the costs of the operation. This places an unreasonable burden on troop-contributing countries such as mine, over and above the basic risks involved which they willingly accept. I earnestly hope that ways can be found to alleviate that situation at this session of the Assembly.
266.	Operations such as UNIFIL serve as an example of the positive and practical contribution which the United Nations can make in keeping the peace in difficult circumstances.
267.	We in Ireland have long admired the determination of African countries to work together in the OAU to achieve their common objectives. We know they welcome outside co-operation in their development and in dealing with problems created by national disasters, and Ireland is pledged to play its small part in this effort. We know, too, that the African States oppose intervention by outside Powers in their affairs. Such intervention can only compound the conflicts that exist.
268.	In contrast, the constructive results of the promotion by the United Nations of the decolonization process are now evident, thankfully, in southern Africa.
269.	Zimbabwe has at last achieved its rightful position among the free nations. Out of the years of bitter war has come a new source of inspiration and hope, not only for the future of southern Africa but for the resolution of conflicts in the world at large. At the regional level in southern Africa, possibilities for fruitful co-operation are now unfolding. The initiative undertaken by the countries concerned following the Conferences at Arusha in 19798 and Lusaka this year9 is worthy of the widest support. The international community, for its part, has a special responsibility for ensuring that the achievement in Zimbabwe is not in any way jeopardized. Zimbabwe and the other front-line States should be supported, and pressure for change in Namibia and South Africa maintained.
270.	In spite of the best efforts of the Secretary-General and of the contact group of the five Western countries, the United Nations plan, as contained in resolutions 385 (1976) and 435 (1978) of the Security Council, has not yet been implemented. At the technical level, the differences have been reduced to the point where they are no longer sufficient to justify continued delay. Concessions made by SWAPO and the constructive attitude of the front-line States have demonstrated their commitment to the achievement of a negotiated settlement, despite the provocation of the recent South African attacks on Angola and Zambia. The South African Government must realize that further delay cannot be justified. It will bear the full responsibility for the very serious consequences that will ensue if the legitimate aspirations of the people of Namibia continue to be denied to them. There is no alternative to the adoption of the United Nations plan if a peaceful and internationally recognized solution is to be achieved. Any attempt to establish a so- called independent State without international agreement would be doomed to failure. Ireland will continue to give its full support to the efforts of the Secretary-General, together with those of the Western contact group and the front-line States in co-operation with SWAPO, towards the achievement of a just and internationally recognized settlement without delay and without further bloodshed.
271.	It is evident that there can be no durable peace in southern Africa so long as South Africa maintains its present racist policies. The system of apartheid condemns the majority in South Africa to a life as second-class citizens, renders millions stateless in their own country and involves the forced migration of many thousands to rural slums in the so-called homelands. It can be sustained only through repression. This is a policy that must lead to disaster. Ultimately it will fail, and at great human cost.
272.	There are some signs of a growing awareness among the white community in South Africa of their isolation in the world. However, attempts to reshape or restructure apartheid will not create a free and just society. There can be no compromise on the principle of the equality of every human being and the need to translate this into practice. The need for concerted international pressure on South Africa to change its policy is in no way lessened by recent developments: rather, the need is to maintain such pressure, now that some movement is apparent. The Security Council should, therefore, continue its consideration of selective measures to increase the pressure for change in South Africa.
273.	The breach of Charter principles is evident in Kampuchea. The people of that country have undergone a period of barbaric despotism in their own land, followed by foreign invasion and occupation.
274.	As the Irish Foreign Minister declared on behalf of the nine Community members at the last session of the Assembly, a solution to the problem must be based on an independent Kampuchea, free from any foreign military presence, maintaining friendly relations with all the countries of the region and having the benefit of international assistance for reconstruction. In a joint, declaration issued at the end of the Second Ministerial Meeting of ASEAN and the European Economic Community, held at Kuala Lumpur on 7 and 8 March 1980, we urged the early implementation of General Assembly resolution 34/22 and we also called on all parties to exert the utmost efforts in order to avert a possible spill over of hostilities into neighbouring ASEAN countries and a widening of the area of conflict.
275.	My Government is particularly concerned at the heightening of tension over the past few months in the area of the Thai-Kampuchean border and at the consequent grave danger to the large numbers of Kampuchean refugees who are concentrated there. The incursion into Thailand at the end of June resulted in a dangerous increase in tension, further threatened the stability of South-East Asia as a whole and caused still further human suffering. There is a need for restraint by all concerned in this potentially explosive situation.
276.	Despite the failure so far to find a political solution, our Organization has, however, had some success in the humanitarian field. The immediate danger of widespread famine and its consequences which faced the Kampuchea people last year seems to have passed, to some extent. Credit for this is due in no small measure to the heroic efforts of the international relief agencies. I reaffirm Ireland's support for the activities of these agencies in their efforts to help all those in need, without discrimination, and I hope they will be given the greatest possible co-operation by the authorities involved.
277.	In Afghanistan, too, any settlement must provide for the withdrawal of foreign troops. Afghanistan must be enabled to resume its traditional neutrality and non- alignment, to remain outside competition between the Powers and to maintain friendly relations with its neighbours, Conditions must be created in which the people of Afghanistan can determine their own form of government and decide their destiny free from outside intervention, in accordance with General Assembly resolution ES-6/2 adopted on 14 January 1980.
278.	Both among the peoples of the world and here at the United Nations, there has been a growing awareness of the importance of basic human rights and the need to protect them. Unfortunately, that growing awareness has been largely prompted by the knowledge that human rights are being violated on a systematic and widespread basis in many parts of the world. In the area of human rights, the plight of refugees or displaced persons in many parts of the world illustrates this in a most dramatic fashion. Governments continue, unfortunately, to act in conflict with the international commitments that they have accepted in this area.
279.	The Commission on Human Rights has intensified its work as a result, and it is important that the Commission continue to develop its investigative powers and that it be given every co-operation to that end. It is especially important that investigations begun by the United Nations, whether under public or private procedures, should not be concluded before satisfactory results are achieved. We must also continue at this Assembly the effort to reach agreement on improved United Nations human rights machinery and to give to the Secretariat the resources that will permit it to function with much greater effectiveness.
280.	Some progress has been made in establishing legal norms. The last session of the Commission on Human Rights made substantial progress in adopting parts of the draft convention on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." The establishment of a working group to examine the fate of missing persons and persons who have disappeared was a significant achievement of the session and a recognition of a growing problem. For when authorities can deny any knowledge of the whereabouts of such individuals, they are effectively deprived of all their rights.
281.	While on the subject of human rights, it is incumbent upon me to refer to the continued holding of members of the staff of the United States Embassy in Teheran as hostages, in flagrant breach of international law and of humanitarian principles. Ireland fully respects the independence of Iran and the right of the Iranian people to determine their own future. But in their own interest, and that of the world community as a whole, I would again call on the Government and the people of Iran to respect the rights of others with whom they may differ on a political or religious basis and to uphold fundamental and humanitarian principles and established tenets of international law by releasing the hostages.
282.	Underlying many of our current problems are the gross disparities that continue to exist between rich and poor nations, such disparities are not only unacceptable in themselves but can constitute a real threat to peace and stability. The millions of our fellow human beings who, through no fault of their own, exist in an apparently unending cycle of poverty and hunger, cannot be expected to acquiesce in that condition indefinitely. Justice demands that their situation be changed urgently and effectively.
283.	The international community, through the United Nations, has taken the lead in helping to promote such change and over recent decades some progress has been made to improve the lives of the less well off in developing countries. But the situation continues to be critical and much remains to be done. We must not only provide aid to help those who suffer from the effects of under-development but we must attack the very root causes of underdevelopment itself.
284.	The recently concluded eleventh special session of the General Assembly was concerned essentially with seeking to concentrate our energies towards achieving that end. The agreed text of the new International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade sets out the general framework for our actions over the next 10 years establishes our priorities and provides that the outcome of future United Nations and other relevant conferences, including the global negotiations, can be incorporated into it as the decade proceeds.
285.	However, my Government regrets that the eleventh special session was unable to finish its tasks and that work on the procedures and agenda for the global negotiations was not completed. That must now be done at the present session of the General Assembly, so that the new round of global negotiations can be launched early in 1981. We believe that global negotiations can be vital and. by promoting growth and development, can benefit not just the developing world but the entire international community.
286.	Ireland is determined to play, both nationally and internationally, its full part in promoting a revitalized North-South dialogue. I can reaffirm that Ireland, although not a rich or powerful nation is committed to progressing towards the 0.7 per cent target for official development assistance as rapidly as our resources will allow. Given our own stage of development and the many social and economic demands of a young and growing population, our progress may not be as rapid as we would wish. None the less we intend to maintain a steady increase in the flow of our transfers during the course of the present decade.
287.	Drawing on our own recent developmental experience, we in Ireland aim in our co-operation with the people of developing countries to help them free themselves from the trap of under-development.
288.	In looking at those parts of the world where there is unrest and turmoil, I may be forgiven for being particularly concerned about an area close to home. The tragic violence that has come to be part of everyday life in Northern Ireland has endured now for more than 10 years.
289.	In approaching that fact, as with any other problem, we must distinguish between symptoms and causes. The symptoms in Northern Ireland are evident but the causes are deep seated, and they will not be solved by security measures alone.
290.	The division of Ireland 60 years ago and the establishment of Northern Ireland as a region within the United Kingdom was a misconceived attempt by the British Government to resolve a major problem of the day, On the one hand, it faced the need to come to terms with the demand of the majority of the people of the country as a whole that Ireland should be independent. On the other hand, British interests and sentiment called for arrangements to meet the wish of a unionist minority to remain united with Britain.
291.	Instead of resolving the difficulty, however, that settlement simply concentrated it within what then became Northern Ireland. The area was artificially devised not on a geographical or historical basis but to create a unit in which people of unionist leanings would have a permanent inbuilt majority. As a consequence, it also included a newly-created and substantial minority of nationalists who shared the aspiration to unity and independence of the majority of the population of Ireland, an aspiration that was frustrated by the new arrangement.
292.	Sixty years have now passed since Ireland was thus divided. In that time, even though the vast majority of the population of Ireland—North and South—wants peace and abhors violence, and even though both British and Irish Governments act vigorously against violence, almost every decade in that period has seen violence erupt within Northern Ireland. It is clear that Northern Ireland as an entity and the settlement that brought it into being have failed. It is apparent that there is a fundamental instability in the very structure of the region which has inhibited the development of normal political and social life there and which all too frequently has found expression in violence.
293.	The area is fundamentally unstable because there has never been within it the kind of political consensus which in more normal societies underlies party differences. Instead, the very existence of Northern Ireland itself has always been the issue, so that normal politics do not exist; and that has been the only basic issue for over 60 years. The majority were always insecure and fearful that the settlement which made them a majority would be upset; the minority, on their side, were frustrated in their basic aspirations to Irish unity, discriminated against because of this and excluded in practice from effective political participation in an area whose very existence they called into question.
294.	The result is that normal political life has been distorted and community divisions based on historical or religious differences have been accentuated rather than diminished.
295.	Even now, 60 years later, new efforts are still being made to establish suitable structures of regional government to accommodate the interests of all sections of the community within Northern Ireland. Many past injustices have indeed been corrected in recent years. But fears and insecurities continue and the forces of violence and extremism on each side of a divided community have taken advantage of the situation for their own narrow ends.
296.	The toll of violence in such a very small area is indeed appalling. Over the past decade more than 2,000 people have been killed and 25,000 injured. There have been 27,000 shooting incidents and almost 7,000 explosions. Translated into human terms, the figures represent a society that is virtually under siege, with whole areas and neighbourhoods which can scarcely remember peaceful conditions. Perhaps even more disturbing are the social malaise and economic stagnation which have come about in Northern Ireland. Because of the continuing instability, valuable opportunities for economic development have been lost. Industrial and agricultural outputs are now lower than in the early 1970s. The population, which had been increasing up to the 1970s, is now static or declining. Overall unemployment stands at 15 per cent. In some areas it is as high as 28 per cent.
297.	For the young, especially, the picture is sombre and distressing. Many have come into a society where violence and deprivation are the norm. Their chances of finding a job and securing a decent, standard of living are small. These social conditions provide a rich breeding ground for further disorder and extremist politics.
298.	My Government cannot look upon these conditions as something affecting Northern Ireland alone or remote from our daily life in the rest of Ireland. They are happening in our country. They affect the people of all traditions in Ireland. Indeed, as a result of what is happening in Northern Ireland, my Government now spends on security alone proportionately more than the United Kingdom on similar measures. It is said that prosperity is indivisible. So also, unfortunately, is instability. The conditions I am referring to may affect not only Ireland, but places outside it. Trouble in any country today can mean trouble for many countries.
299.	This is the background that has led my Government to fix the peaceful resolution of the problem of Northern Ireland as our primary political priority. We are determined to seek a lasting and comprehensive settlement to this question.
300.	As we look back at the past 10 years, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that much of the political effort in Northern Ireland has been directed at the symptoms only. Successive efforts to work out equitable Government structures within the existing framework of Northern Ireland have come to nothing because they failed to get to grips with the fundamental problem. I would not wish in any way to be dismissive of the most recent attempt, which is still in progress, but it is difficult, from what we know of the positions and the expectations of those involved, to be optimistic as to the result.
301.	It is necessary, in my view, to go beyond the efforts now under way to devise structures of government solely confined to Northern Ireland. The framework for a solution must take full account of three other vital dimensions: that of relations between North and South in the island of Ireland; the relationship—now so close in so many areas— between Britain and Ireland; and the common membership of both countries within the European Community.
302.	The relation between North and South in Ireland is fundamental; it is a matter of geographical, historical, political, economic, social and cultural reality. Time has shown that division in Ireland simply has not worked. Accordingly, my Government wishes to see an arrangement evolve where-by Irish men and women would manage the affairs of the whole of Ireland in a truly constructive partnership, without a British presence but with active British goodwill for any arrangement in Ireland which may be worked out by agreement.
303.	My Government is willing to discuss with all the representatives of Northern Ireland what arrangements would be needed to safeguard their interests and traditions. My Government has no doubt that they can be accommodated. We would be willing to go far—very far—perhaps further than they realize, in order to reach agreement on new arrangements, looking not to the past but to the future to bring peace and stability to an area which has known trouble for far too long.
304.	Having said that, I must add that attitudes struck up to now have been influenced by the unqualified guarantees given by successive British Governments to the unionist section of the people in Northern Ireland. This has encouraged them to veto any proposals, however constructive, in advance. Accordingly, it is our belief that a declaration by the British Government of their interest in encouraging the unity of Ireland by agreement and in peace could open the way towards an entirely new situation and help us, in Ireland, to devise new structures, by agreement and with consent, which would bring lasting peace to the whole island of Ireland.
305.	It is clear that discussion of this question must be raised to a new plane between the sovereign Governments of Ireland and Britain and be set within the second and wider dimension of which I spoke—the unique relationship between the peoples of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the peoples of the Republic. That this relationship is indeed unique was explicitly recognised by the Irish Prime Minister, Mr. Haughey, and the British Prime Minister, Mrs. Thatcher, in the communique which they issued following their talks in London in May this year. They agreed on that occasion to develop new and closer political cooperation between their two sovereign Governments and to hold regular meetings on a continuing basis, and they agreed to further that unique relationship between their peoples in the interests of peace and reconciliation.
306.	Finally, there is the wider dimension set by the common membership of Great Britain and Ireland within the European Community. Linked together within the wider grouping, the two countries, together with their other partners, have developed new forms of co-operation which complement and extend the already close bilateral relations between them. Clearly, this common membership of both countries in a wider community committed to closer integration of its peoples provides a good background against which the two Governments can hope to resolve the apparently intractable problem which a common history has left to their two peoples.
307.	I need hardly add that this new arrangement in Ireland which my Government wants to see emerge must be based entirely on agreement and consent. We have no wish to coerce or dominate, and we totally reject violence and will continue to act vigorously against it.
308.	In summary, our approach to this problem, which is close to us, is essentially that which I commended to our Organization here at the outset of my speech. We commit ourselves to efforts to bring true and lasting peace to our island, and we reject those who have recourse to violence. We commit ourselves to apply in our own case the principles we commend to others and which underlie the Charter of this Organization.
309.	Many of those who have come before me to this rostrum in the general debate have spoken of the world situation at present in sombre terms. I do not know if this view of the international situation today is wholly justified; but it is certainly true that the international climate is more difficult now than a year ago. At this time, it is, I believe, more important than ever that we uphold and abide by the principles of this Organization as set out in the Charter. My delegation has tried to do this since it became a Member 25 years ago.
310.	Here at this rostrum today, I pledge on behalf of my Government and country that we will continue to do so to the best of our ability.


Our brother, Mr. Salim of the United Republic of Tanzania, to whom I am happy today to pay a tribute, conducted, step by step, with the competence, tact and good humour with which we are familiar, the work of the thirty-fourth session of the General Assembly, the sixth and seventh emergency special sessions, devoted respectively to the situation in Afghanistan and the question of Palestine, and, finally, the eleventh special session, on international economic co-operation for development. He hands over to Mr. von Wechmar the task, at once enviable and redoubtable, of presiding over the work of the General Assembly. For more than one reason my delegation is happy to see Mr. von Wechmar assume the presidency of the current session because he is, first, the representative of a friendly country, the Federal Republic of Germany, with which my country maintains close and mutually advantageous co-operation. But he is also a talented diplomat, profoundly acquainted with international problems and full of wisdom and experience, all of which are reasons for believing in the success- full development of our work. He may be assured of the- active co-operation of my delegation.
226.	On 24 October the international community will celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of the entry into force of the Charter of the United Nations, by the adoption of which, in the wake of one of the greatest scourges ever known to mankind, our Governments aroused in the hearts of millions of men and women a ray of hope for a better life, a world of peace and security, justice and equality and economic and social progress for all peoples and countries. What remains of that hope? Very little, unfortunately, because things are not going well.
227.	If we take an objective look at the present state of the world at the dawn of the decade of the 1980s, we are obliged to note some bitter facts: that serious hotbeds of tension are developing, which scarcely give cause for optimism, and that a serious structural crisis is shaking the world's economy.
228.	At a time when our Organization is getting ready to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, it is with bitterness that my Government notes that in Namibia and in South Africa the situation remains dangerously blocked as a result of the delaying tactics of the racist Government of Pretoria. Thus, at the cynical will of the advocates of apartheid, African patriots are still subject to the humiliating yoke of colonialism and racial discrimination.
229.	The international community has always regarded this state of affairs as prejudicial to international peace and security. It has recognized in apartheid a crime against humanity and has expressed unreservedly its moral, material and political support for the oppressed peoples of Namibia and South Africa. Countless resolutions, programmes of action and restraining measures have been adopted in order to eradicate colonialism, racism and apartheid from that part of Africa. But despite all efforts, South Africa, knowing it has the support of certain Western Powers, continues insolently and contemptuously to trample underfoot the most elementary principles of law and morality. My Government will never cease to proclaim the profound aversion and disgust it feels regarding racism and apartheid, to decry the collaboration which South Africa enjoys and to support unfailingly the liberation struggle carried on by the peoples of Namibia and South Africa to recover their dignity, to win their freedom and to participate democratically in the affairs of their country.
230.	I am happy in this connection to avail myself of this opportunity at this session to reiterate to the friendly delegation of Zimbabwe the warm congratulations of my Government on its recent admission to this Organization. This is a just tribute paid to the brave people of Zimbabwe, which fought for so many long years for the triumph of freedom and justice.
231.	The situation in the Middle East constitutes for my Government another source of concern and disquiet because it is potentially explosive and dangerous for international peace and security. Situated squarely at the crossroads between North Africa and Africa south of the Sahara, having had, since time immemorial, fruitful relations with Arab nations with which it shared a common Islamic culture and civilization and inspired, in all its international actions, by the principles of non-alignment, Niger cannot remain indifferent at the continued occupation of Arab territories by the State of Israel, the latter's repeated aggression against Lebanon and the tragedy of the Palestinian people.
232.	It will be readily understood that my Government proclaims its rejection of any acquisition of territory by force, its condemnation of the desecration by Israel of the Holy Places in Jerusalem and the transfer to that city of the capital of the Zionist entity, as well as its full support for all the resolutions adopted in various international bodies calling on Israel to withdraw unconditionally from all Arab territories occupied since 1967.
233. In this same context, my Government denounces the repression, the harassment and the terror to which Israel has resorted against the Arab populations in the occupied territories, condemns its continued aggression against Lebanon and proclaims its unreserved support of the just cause of the Palestinian people in its struggle to regain its inalienable and imprescriptible rights. In this connection, it must be clearly understood that, in our view, there can be no just, comprehensive and durable solution of the Middle East crisis without the participation on a footing of equality of the PLO, the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, in all efforts, deliberations and conferences dealing with the question of Palestine and the situation in the Middle East.
234. While southern Africa and the Middle East call for and deserve greater attention by our Organization, it is equally true that many other hotbeds of tension continue to shake the world. The proliferation of such bloody, often fratricidal, confrontations constitutes a serious threat to the already frail balance that governs the survival of mankind.
235.	How long will that balance hold?
236.	Niger and its people, like the whole of the Islamic community and other peace-loving and security-loving peoples, deplore the conflict between two neighbourly sister countries with which my country shares the sacred values of Islam—that religion of peace, tolerance, brotherhood and love. I should like to reiterate, on behalf of my Government, the appeal addressed on 24 September last by President Seyni Kountche for an immediate cease-fire and the establishment of an appropriate framework for a peaceful settlement of the dispute between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Iraq.
237.	As we continue our analysis of the present world situation, we cannot fail to be struck with amazement and indignation at, and to express our total reprobation of, the all too frequent recourse to certain actions that are prejudicial to detente, peace and international security. Time after time, we have witnessed these past years the brutal incursion by foreign forces into sovereign and independent States Members of the United Nations and of the non-aligned movement.
238.	Those brutal incursions by foreign forces into the territories of the Afghan Republic and Kampuchea are, in our eyes, inadmissible and intolerable because they run counter to all the rules of international law. Niger firmly believes in the sacred and inviolable nature of sovereignty and independence of all States and in the right of each people to endow itself with the political, economic and social regime of its choice. Niger, together with nations that love peace, liberty and equality, will continue to strive for the withdrawal of all foreign occupation forces and to oppose, as in the past, the recurrence of such actions.
239.	I mentioned earlier the world economic crisis among the situations which diminish the hope born of the adoption of the Charter of the United Nations, and which do not give us cause for optimism when we consider the present world situation objectively.
240.	The continued deterioration of the world economy, accelerated by the steady worsening of the terms of trade, the ever-widening scientific, economic and technological gulf between developed and developing countries, the disarray in the international monetary system, and the serious food problems confronting most of mankind will lead our countries and peoples, if we are not careful, towards a disaster whose consequences we have barely begun to assess.
241.	Much has been written and said about this sorry state of affairs and its distressing prospects.
242.	In particular, emphasis has been placed on the despair and poverty in which the greater part of mankind lives, the ever-increasing indebtedness and impoverishment of the third world countries, the implacable encroachment of the desert and the famine which besets or threatens entire populations in many regions of the world.
243.	It has also been emphasized that the present international economic order is cynical and unjust, that it is the carrier of potentially dangerous germs, even for the seemingly uncaring empire of the rich.
244.	We paradoxically note that all efforts made to remedy this serious situation have thus far been doomed to failure.
245.	The First United Nations Development Decade ended without achieving its objectives. The launching, in the early 1970s, of the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade suffered the same fate. The negotiations entered into following the sixth special session in 1974, and designed to provide new bases for economic relations between the States of the North and those of the South, did not lead, as was hoped for, to the gradual process of the establishment of the new international economic order. The fine plans of action so arduously and patiently elaborated at Lima, Buenos Aires, Vienna and New Delhi have not begun to be applied. A few days ago, the eleventh special session, held to reactivate the North-South dialogue, ended its work in this same hall without there being agreement, after countless reports, on even the procedure to be followed during these global negotiations.
246.	These repeated failures of the efforts made so far to establish the new international economic order may be explained by the delaying tactics and hesitation of the industrialized countries which, compared to the nations of the third world, do not show the same awareness of the grave dangers threatening the world or the same political will to face up to them.
247.	The head of State of Niger, Colonel Seyni Kountche, stressed that state of affairs on 15 April last when he declared:
"The hopes for a solution at the world level will be disappointed so long as the industrialized States show the i same inability to learn objectively the lessons to be drawn from the evolution of power relations in the world since 1973. Paralysed by an inward-thinking public desirous of keeping what they have acquired in their consumer society, subjected simultaneously to the contradictory influences of antagonistic pressure groups, those countries are unable to contribute positively to the multilateral negotiations aimed at ensuring the stabilization of currencies, the regularization of raw materials markets and the establishment of trade on a basis of equality and mutual benefit."
248.	Among those objectives, stabilization of prices of raw materials is for my Government a matter of special concern because the drop in the price of some of our products is distressing proof of the narrowness of vision and inability of the wealthy to give willing support to our attempts to move towards economic and social development
249.	Niger nevertheless will continue, despite the disappointment and discouragement brought about by the stale-mate in the world, to strive, together with other nations in the third world, for the establishment of a new international economic order. We still nurture the hope that despite the many obstacles and the lack of understanding we have noticed in the past negotiations, wisdom will finally prevail over the selfishness of groups, in the interest of mankind as a whole.
250.	My country firmly believes in North-South co-operation, despite the present difficulties; but the nations of the third world must understand that the North-South dialogue cannot in itself bring a solution to the many problems which delay and complicate their development efforts. As stated by the head of State of Niger at the Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held in Cuba from 3 to 9 September 1979:
"The trap in which we are in danger of remaining for a long time consists in believing that the future of the nations of the third world is in the hands of others, and that horizontal co-operation is a remote domain, only accessible in the future. We must see things as they are, but historical reality tells us unceasingly that our movement has no future if it does not take root and delays indefinitely the strengthening of economic solidarity amongst its members."
That is why my country is assiduously taking care of the close links of co-operation it has established with fraternal and neighbourly countries, in the framework of bodies such as the Economic Community of West African States, the Niger River Commission, the Conseil de l'entente and the Conference of Saharan States, to quote but a few.
251.	That is why Niger is also gratified at the highly positive results of the first Conference devoted to economic problems convened by the Heads of State and Government of the OAU on 28 and 29 April this year at Lagos. The Lagos Plan of Action represents in our view an unequivocal expression of the political will of our Governments to undertake, for the benefit of the peoples of the continent, concerted action for the endogenous and self-sustained development of our economies which will lead to the creation of an African common market and an integrated African economic community: the African peoples will not fail to keep this rendezvous with history.
252.	Having benefited from the lessons and fruitful contributions of international co-operation, which it has duly appreciated during its trying years of drought, Niger has learnt first to rely on itself and its own strength. Inspired by this basic principle, the Supreme Military Council which governs the destiny of my country has undertaken, since it took office in April 1974, a vast programme of national reconstruction.
253.	First of all, we had to take care of the most urgent needs, in other words, to rescue a whole people, threatened in its existence and dignity, from famine and the epidemics that accompany it; to save the capital represented by our livestock, which was being decimated by the implacable drought that afflicted the Sahelian countries.
254.	Then we acted to reintroduce order into the affairs of State and to organize, on a healthier and more sound basis, the economic and social development of the nation.
255.	The launching of a triennial programme, and then of a five-year development plan, enabled us to record significant results and encouraging successes on the road to the liberation of our economy from natural factors, alimentary self-sufficiency and economic independence.
256.	Thus, thanks to the determination of our people, under the guidance of the Supreme Military Council, we have undertaken, very often successfully, to mitigate considerably the effects of the drought and relieve our people of the agonizing spectre of famine; to build up our livestock; to extend our arable land through a sustained policy of agricultural irrigation; to improve our health and educational infrastructure; to increase the purchasing power of our workers and peasants; to increase our budget and our national investment funds substantially; and to endow our country with the appropriate infrastructure for communications and telecommunications.
257.	The results we have achieved, far from having gone to our head, have comforted us in our determination to press on.
258.	It is in this context that the Supreme Military Council and the Government seek to establish in Niger, through an original formula, a society of development, that is, to use the words of President Kountche, "a morally healthy and balanced society, fundamentally united, which seeks the same ideal of justice and has the same will for progress". A national commission has been created for the establishment of that society of development.
259.	That commission, which includes all social and professional strata of the nation, will have the task of studying and defining an adequate framework for a policy of accelerated development which will be coherent and harmonious for our country, and the end product of which will be the man of Niger himself. This policy of development will be the fruit of national consensus, obtained through new institutions such as to ensure the inclusion of all strata of our society, their consultation by the public authorities and their active and responsible participation in the actions to be planned and taken.
260.	We have undertaken the organization of the rural sector throughout our vast country, as well as the organization of the youth of Niger and of all professionals.
261.	We have undertaken to establish in our villages, districts and countries, development cells which will expand until they cover the whole of the national territory at its different community levels.
262.	These organizations of peasants, of young people, of professional organizations and development cells will be the crucible for reflection and the guiding power of our developing future society, which we are building up in unity, with determination, and removed from ideological considerations. In this task, as was so rightly said by President Kountche, "our instrument of work will be, above all, good sense and the philosophy of the land".
263.	This is the exciting experience of Niger at present. It is thus that it hopes to conduct its development, and it hopes to do so in peace and security, which is why it will unfailingly continue to support the work of the United Nations and its noble ideals.
264.	As I come to the end of my statement, I wish to pay solemn tribute to the daily action of the Secretary-General, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, who has placed his rare intellectual and moral qualities at the exalting service of this historic task of justice, freedom and progress of peoples, a task of harmony and assistance between nations. May he rest assured of the continued support of my Government.
265.	May the work of this Assembly enriched by the experience and contribution of the Republic of Zimbabwe and of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, lead to the progress of the cause of peace and international security.


Mr. President, may I, on behalf of the delegation of Burundi, say how pleased we are to see you presiding over the work of the thirty-fifth session of the General Assembly. Your long experience in the Organization, your high sense of responsibility and your determination to fight constantly for the ideals which led to the creation of the United Nations are a valuable pledge of the harmonious progress and successful outcome of the work of this session. Furthermore, you represent a country with which Burundi is pleased to have solid bonds of cooperation. Rest assured that my delegation will spare no effort to cooperate fully with you for the success of your delicate tasks.
72.	May I also pay a warm tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Salim Ahmed Salim, of the United Republic of Tanzania. The diligence, competence, skill and dynamism he displayed, both during the deliberations at the thirty-fourth session of the General Assembly and at the special sessions which dealt with topics that were complex, stormy and even explosive, won him the esteem, admiration and respect of all. He has done honour to his country and to Africa as a whole.
73.	A few weeks ago we joyfully welcomed Zimbabwe as the one hundred and fifty-third Member of the United Nations. The decolonization of that country was a source of pride and hope to us. It showed the high level of maturity attained by the people and leaders of that country and their willingness to live together in mutual respect for each other's diversity. It shattered the absurd notion of those who still believed that colonization and the reign of apartheid would last for ever. A source of hope for those still struggling against the colonial yoke, Zimbabwe's accession to independence has given new impetus and strength to the efforts of all those fighting for self-determination and independence.
74.	We also welcome Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as the one hundred and fifty-fourth Member State.
75.	The United Nations will certainly be strengthened by the contribution of these two countries, whose struggle for peace, justice and respect for human rights and dignity has marked the history of their respective lengthy struggles. We are assured that they will lend new impetus and dynamism to the Organization.
76.	We also wish to express our satisfaction and our support to Mr. Kurt Waldheim, whose high sense of responsibility, competence, integrity and clear-sightedness make that eminent statesman one of the personages who have won the esteem and admiration of the whole international community.
77.	The thirty-fourth session of the General Assembly was an exceptional one for the Government and people of Burundi. The head of State of Burundi, Colonel Jean Baptiste Bagaza, took a personal part in that session. By his presence he was giving vivid proof of the gratitude of the Government and people of Burundi for the efforts of the United Nations within the framework of cooperation among nations. As he declared from this rostrum:
"The work that has been done in this area by the United Nations is, in our view, of particular importance. We should therefore like to take this opportunity to pay a well-deserved tribute to the General Assembly, which can take pride in having so consistently lived up to the importance of its task and, therefore, constitutes an ideal framework for cooperation, exchange of experience and decision making."
78.	That exceptional occasion enabled the people of Burundi, through its President, to express its full trust in and constant support for the United Nations in its noble task of striving ceaselessly for the triumph of its fundamental objectives.
79.	Those fundamental objectives are also those of our people and have been comprehensively stated in the Assembly by President Bagaza. His conclusion on this score illustrates in several ways, on the one hand, the method of government of the Second Republic which makes participation by every citizen in public life the essential condition for its success, and, on the other hand, our opening up to the international community, which led to our association with the United Nations in one of the most important stages of our national life. I quote that conclusion:
"In order to permit the Burundi people effectively to exercise its prerogatives of sovereignty, we created the necessary conditions for the party to be able to guide and genuinely to control the executive. In other words, the people run and manage their own affairs in the communes and the provinces. Leaders are only kept in their posts to the extent that they enjoy the confidence of the people.
"Thanks to the political maturity of our people, we believe that the time has come to permit it to choose its leaders at all levels. This task is incumbent on the National Congress of the UPRONA party [Union pour le progres national], a meeting of which is scheduled for the end of this year, and this will constitute in practice the consummation of the action already laid down at the level of the communal assemblies and provincial congresses of the renovated UPRONA party.
"In the light of the foregoing, we can claim that the State which we are organizing is one which will permit the Burundi people to perpetuate their history, to strengthen their age-old unity, to consolidate the victories they have won, to build their democracy and to determine their future in a free and sovereign manner. It is for the people of Burundi, in fact, to pronounce on the type of society which will safeguard their identity, while guaranteeing their progress in a world full of change.
"This is the role of the National Congress of the party, and this is why we quite rightly consider that this session of the party will constitute an event of primary importance in the national life of the Burundi people. We were therefore anxious to inform the United Nations and the whole international community of this, especially because we in Burundi consider that there must exist a certain harmony between internal options and a country's foreign policy."
80.	A year later I am pleased to announce to the Assembly that the promises made by my President at the thirty-fourth session have been entirely carried out. The Congress of UPRONA, which met from 26 to 29 December 1979, was highly successful, because, on the one hand, of the broad participation of the people and, on the other, of the important decisions taken concerning the democratic organization of our country and the domestic and external options of the Government of Burundi. At the end of that Congress, the participants unanimously reaffirmed the guiding principles of Burundi's foreign policy as defined from this rostrum by the President of the Republic of Burundi, Colonel Jean Baptiste Bagaza. Those principles are good neighbourliness, positive nonalignment, non-interference in the internal affairs of other States, international cooperation and support for national liberation movements.
81.	Basing myself on those fundamental principles guiding the foreign policy of my country, I should like to turn to the major issues of the day. In the main, they concern decolonization, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the new international economic order.
82.	South Africa's presence in Namibia, the militarization of that Territory, the policy of brutal repression of the Namibian people, the ruthless exploitation of that peace loving people, the plundering of Namibia's resources and the deliberate destruction of national unity and territorial integrity are, in the view of the Government of Burundi, criminal acts of aggression against the nation of Namibia and flout the will of the international community.
83.	With a view to putting an end to this unacceptable situation, the United Nations has adopted a number of resolutions condemning South Africa for its illegal occupation and calling upon it to withdraw from Namibia.
84.	In view of South Africa's intransigence, the Security Council, in its resolution 435 (1978), has endorsed a proposal of five Western countries. In a spirit of great responsibility and high political maturity, the only genuine representative of the Namibian people, SWAPO, has accepted that United Nations proposal. However, to that positive attitude, the illegal South African regime responded only with mass arbitrary arrests of SWAPO leaders and Namibian patriots. South Africa's answer to the constructive proposal to demilitarize the frontier zone between Namibia and Angola has been to step up the totally unprovoked acts of aggression against the People's Republic of Angola and the Republic of Zambia.
85.	In these circumstances, the Government of Burundi is convinced that the following measures and actions should be adopted by the United Nations and the entire international community: practical support for the armed struggle being waged valiantly by the Namibian people under the leadership of SWAPO; pressure to be exerted on that illegal regime by States and Powers involved in this policy of occupation and exploitation; and, above all, the imposition by the Security Council of comprehensive mandatory sanctions against South Africa pursuant to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
86.	Not far from Namibia, the South African racists continue to gag a whole people subjected to barbarous and hateful repression because of the colour of their skin.
87.	In fact, in South Africa the situation is constantly deteriorating because of the criminal policy of apartheid. The vice is being tightened on a people struggling only for its survival, dignity and freedom.
88.	The machine of war and repression is striking the Coloured inhabitants of South Africa mercilessly and without distinction. In this escalation of violence peaceful populations, the elderly, women and children are not spared. Indeed, let us recall the massacres of Sharpeville, Soweto and elsewhere.
89.	In view of this intolerable situation, the South African people has been compelled to take up arms against that regime of tyranny. We seize this opportunity to pay a tribute to this valiant people and its national liberation movement. The victories already gained by the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania and, in particular, the African National Congress of South Africa should give rise to more solidarity with the South African people.
90.	I should like, on behalf of the Government of Burundi, urgently to appeal to the international community so that appropriate measures shall at last be taken to restore freedom and dignity to the South African people at present subjected to the most ferocious repression.
91.	In this context the delegation of Burundi reaffirms the legitimacy of the armed struggle being waged by the oppressed people of South Africa and condemns the racist South African regime for its policy of repression and its acts of armed aggression against the frontline States and the continuation of collaboration and political, military, nuclear, economic, cultural and trade cooperation with South Africa.
92.	The Government of Burundi supports the military embargo imposed by the Security Council in resolution 418 344 (1977) against South Africa. Furthermore, the Government of Burundi is convinced of the need and the urgency for the Security Council to adopt mandatory measures pursuant to Chapter VII of the Charter, including Article 41, with a view to putting an end to the apartheid regime, which is a serious threat to international peace and security not only in Africa but also throughout the world.
93.	Although the African continent has largely freed itself of colonial and racist domination, there are still anachronistic colonial situations such as those in Namibia, South Africa and Western Sahara, on which something should be said. The question of Western Sahara is, in my delegation's view, one of decolonization. It therefore falls within the framework of General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), the twentieth anniversary of whose adoption we shall soon be celebrating.
94.	For the Government of Burundi, there can be no doubt that the Sahraoui people must freely exercise its inalienable right to self-determination and independence in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and that of the Organization of African Unity [OAU]. My delegation considers that the efforts of the two organizations aimed at the decolonization of Western Sahara are complementary and call for the withdrawal of all Moroccan occupation troops from the Sahraoui Arab Democratic Republic.
95.	We urge Morocco to abide by the relevant resolutions of the OAU and the United Nations calling upon it to put an end to its military occupation of Western Sahara.
96.	With regard to the position of the Government of Burundi, I should like to reaffirm its solidarity with the Sahraoui Arab Democratic Republic, and to assure POLISARIO of its total support. In recognizing the Sahraoui Arab Democratic Republic, with which the State of Burundi has just established diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level, the Government of Burundi is guided only by a concern for cooperation and solidarity with a people struggling for its dignity and freedom.
97.	While still on the subject of the African continent, I should like to express the deep concern of the Government of Burundi over the tragedy in Chad. With regard to the situation in Chad, the Government of Burundi calls upon all States not to interfere in that country's internal affairs and to allow the people of Chad to settle their problems themselves.
98.	For more than three decades the question of Palestine has been before the Organization. Numerous initiatives for a settlement have been put forward; all have ended in failure because of Israel's intransigence or simply because they ignored one of the parties concerned, namely, the people of Palestine, whose sole representative is the PLO.
99.	Any settlement which does not duly take this factor into account can only lead to a deadlock. No country, no matter how powerful, no organization, however universal, can tell the Palestinian people how its State should be organized or what statutes or regime it should adopt, nor can any form of government be imposed on it. It is therefore up to the PLO alone, which is the sole authentic representative of the Palestinian people, to negotiate on behalf of that people and to arrive at a course of action without any foreign interference.
100.	Looking at the situation in the Middle East, the Government of Burundi reaffirms its opposition to the acquisition of territory by force. It therefore condemns the occupation by Israel of Arab and Palestinian territories. The Government of Burundi also condemns the Israeli policy of Jewish settlements in Palestinian and Arab lands.
101.	The decision taken by Israel to annex the eastern sector of Jerusalem has aroused deep emotion in my country and throughout the world. In the view of the Government of Burundi, that act is completely null and void. Thus, my delegation would call on the Israeli authorities to revoke their decision and to respect the sacred nature of the Holy City of Jerusalem.
102.	The situation in Southeast Asia is scarcely more reassuring than those that I have mentioned in Africa and the Middle East. Indeed, the situation prevailing in Afghanistan, Kampuchea and Korea deserves special attention by the international community.
103.	With respect to Afghanistan, the delegation of Burundi would like to state the following. First, the Government of Burundi respects the sovereignty and the basic choices of the Afghan people. Consequently, the Government of Burundi is opposed to any intervention or interference in, the internal affairs of that independent country which is a member of the nonaligned movement. Secondly, the Government of Burundi is opposed to any subversion from abroad against the people of Afghanistan and is opposed to any use of that territory as a springboard for threatening the security of any neighbouring country. Thirdly, the Government of Burundi considers that, given the present international political situation, the Afghan people can freely decide on its future only if all foreign troops are withdrawn from its territory.
104.	With respect to the situation in Kampuchea, my delegation would also like to make its position clear. First, the Government of Burundi considers that the people of Kampuchea is alone able to determine without foreign interference, its future and its fate. Secondly, my Government is opposed to the use of that territory as a base for launching acts of aggression or attacks against any other State in the region. Thirdly, my Government is convinced that the time has come to allow the people of Kampuchea to take charge of its own destiny without foreign interference. Thus, the Government of Burundi favours the withdrawal of all foreign troops and forces from that territory and the ending of any external subversion against that people, v hose political personality and cultural identity have resisted all foreign occupation.
105.	With respect to the question of Korea, the Government of Burundi unreservedly supports the peaceful reunification and independence of the Korean nation. My country supports the withdrawal of all foreign troops based in South Korea. My delegation would further like to draw the attention of the international community to the serious consequences of admitting two Koreas to the United Nations. We believe that this course of action should be opposed.
106.	The position of my country on the situations which today are the flashpoints in the world has been arrived at only by concern for respecting the will of those peoples and for promoting a climate of detente and international security.
107.	In this context, the Government of Burundi sincerely hopes that the conclusions of the tenth special session, devoted to disarmament, will be followed by action and that general and complete disarmament can get under way.
108.	My country hailed the results of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe as an important step on the road to detente. It welcomes the signing by the Soviet Union and the United States of America of the agreement known as SALT II,  which we hope will be rapidly ratified.
109.	With a view to strengthening international peace and security, the delegation of Burundi considers that the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace should be implemented by all States. We urge the great Powers to give up their rivalry in that region, which is so rich in promise.
110.	Real and lasting peace and security are inconceivable without justice and equity in international economic relations. It is justice that is at stake here. In their report the eminent experts of the Brandt Commission  speak of moral imperatives. Today there are many peoples with respect to whom famine and poverty take their toll with unprecedented severity, developing countries which see their natural wealth ruthlessly exploited by the developed countries or through foreign transnational corporations. Those "poor" countries stand helplessly by while their resources are plundered and they see themselves being deprived of the means to promote their own development. I shall not even mention other factors which give rise to serious tension and which may, once the victims have become truly aware of what is happening, lead to desperate action. And we know very well that what comes too late is called irreparable.
111.	The Assembly has just held its eleventh special session, which was entirely devoted to the consideration of economic problems. The presence at that special session of such a large number of very high level representatives stressed the concern felt by all the peoples represented about the chaotic world economic situation and demonstrated the ardent hope of the community of States that it can finally begin real cooperation in international economic relations. Statements were almost unanimous in noting the failure of the prevailing economic system because it is unjust, anachronistic, ineffective and not adapted to the present situation.
112.	Although my delegation can say in general that it was satisfied with the level of representation and the quality of the debate, the same would not be true with respect to the assessment of the results of the work done at the session. Indeed, we were deeply disappointed by the refusal of some
States to allow global negotiations to begin. We hope that those States will change their position at the current session and will take this unique opportunity to break the deadlock.
113.	One view is shared unanimously in all international forums: the North South dialogue has come to a halt. Confronted with this pause, any country can easily understand the impatience of the least developed countries, expecting as they do to see the international community urgently adopt and apply practical measures on their behalf.
114.	A good many developing countries still have the energy to pursue the economic debate wherever it is taking place, and they still manage to support their national economies, to a greater or lesser extent. But the least developed countries are in desperate straights. The economies of those countries are on the verge of ruin.
115.	There is no need to repeat all the eloquent statistics of the United Nations and the specialized agencies with respect to the situation in those countries. However, let us just mention the following: annual per capita gross national product, less than $100; their share of the manufactured goods market, less than 10 per cent of the gross domestic product; an 80 per cent rate of illiteracy among the population; a per capita income growth rate of less than 1 per cent over the last 20 years.
116.	The report of the Brandt Commission adds that each of those countries subsists between survival and disaster and lives in an environment of total dependence on the international market forces which are completely beyond its control.
117.	To that generally gloomy picture must be added the fact that my country, Burundi, which is one of the countries in that unenviable position, is additionally handicapped by being landlocked. That further challenge to our development effort places a heavy burden on our exports and imports. Thus, large sums from the already meagre national budget are constantly being deflected from their primary allocations to offset the considerable difficulties caused by the landlocked situation.
118.	Burundi is also one of those countries that are "most seriously affected" by the present crises in the world economy. Quite apart from rhetoric, we can prove that the causes of our economic backwardness are many and deep-rooted and totally beyond our control. Our partners in the struggle for development will certainly forgive me if I set apart from the general picture of the economies of the developing countries the particular position of the least developed economies.
119.	The developed countries, whose heavy historical responsibility no longer needs to be demonstrated, will also understand our cry of alarm and will immediately wish, we hope, to play their proper part in this rescue operation for the least developed countries. In the specific case of that category of countries, there is no more time to play with words and talk about the economies of the "most seriously affected" or the "most vulnerable" countries. The evil is more deep-seated, and should be given special priority attention by the international community.
120.	We most ardently hope that the preparations for and the work of the United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, to be held next year, will be successful. My country is taking a very active part in preparing for that Conference and expects that action oriented measures will replace what might be called "just one more resolution" or "just one more action programme", since both have so far remained dead letters.
121.	Burundi is convinced that the future prosperity of the developing countries lies in their mutual cooperation. Indeed, we even think that in view of the present deadlock in the North South dialogue, economic and technological cooperation among developing countries is an essential alternative.
122.	What is, in the opinion of the Government of Burundi, the real meaning of South South cooperation? It is not, to our mind, a substitute for international cooperation but rather a supplement to it. Nor is it an element of confrontation with our partners in the North. On the contrary, cooperation among developing countries is one factor in developing the resources and capabilities of our countries and a means of promoting peace and cooperation in an international framework in which the developing countries, regarded as full partners, will forge their own destiny in freedom.
123.	Since the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action several regional and interregional meetings have been held, some at the highest political level, and have clearly shown the determination of the developing countries to strive for collective self-reliance. Africa, for its part, showed that w y firm resolution at the second extraordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU, held at Lagos in April, which was an historic meeting. The African heads of State, convinced of the importance and urgency of strengthening regional and sub-regional cooperation, have solemnly declared as a priority common objective individual and collective self-reliance at the level of the continent.
124.	The firm commitment of Burundi to that objective is illustrated by, among other things, our active participation in the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries, which brings together Rwanda, Zaire and Burundi, and in the activities of the Organization for the management and development of the Kagera river basin, which joins the United Republic of Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
125.	As we have just seen, the work facing the Organization is enormous. The success of our undertaking, we believe, depends on the political will of States to make effective the resolutions already adopted, on the one hand, on questions of decolonization and security, such as those concerning in particular Africa, the Middle East, Cyprus and Southeast Asia, and on the other hand, on the new international economic order.
126.	We also believe that the mission of the United Nations will be successful only if the people we represent are fully informed and mobilized to struggle, with all mankind, against the great scourges of our time, namely, famine, disease, ignorance and poverty.
127.	The political and economic challenges which face us are immense. Burundi believes that the community of States must face those challenges and work together in order to find appropriate solutions to them. Burundi firmly believes, too, that the United Nations is the meeting place for performance of that common duty to which we are committed by virtue of having signed the Charter.