We are commemorating this year the tenth anniversary of Bangladesh's admission to the United Nations. I would like to take this opportunity of addressing the General Assembly in the language of my country, which is spoken by about 200 million people all over the world. I may mention here that, in recognition of the fact that such a large segment of the world's population speaks Bengali, the United Nations has introduced broadcasting in Bengali and also has issued an official translation of the Charter of the United Nations in our language.
121.	It is indeed an honour and privilege for me and the members of my delegation to participate in the thirty-ninth session of the General Assembly. We bring to the Assembly the warm greetings of the Government and the people of Bangladesh.
122.	I should like to express our warmest felicitations to Brunei Darussalam on its independence. I welcome it in our midst as a Member of the United Nations. Its membership in the Organization has no doubt added to the strength of the United Nations.
123.	On behalf of the Bangladesh delegation, Sir, and also on my own behalf, I extend to you our warmest congratulations on your assumption of the high office of the presidency of the Assembly. The constructive role of your great country, Zambia, in regional and international issues has earned deep appreciation from all of us. As fellow members of the Commonwealth and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, both Bangladesh and Zambia have a shared perception on all major international issues. The visit of Mr. Kenneth Kaunda to Bangladesh last year has further consolidated the existing friendly relations between our two countries. Your own association with the United Nations, particularly your effective leadership as President of the United Nations Council for Namibia, has given us every reason to believe that, under your able and dynamic leadership, we will be able to achieve fruitful and constructive results at this session. We were deeply moved by your insightful address which you made soon after you took over the presidency. We would like to assure you of our fullest support and co-operation in the discharge of your responsibilities. I should like to express our felicitations to other officers of the Assembly on their well-deserved elections.
124.	We express our gratitude to our friends who reposed their confidence in us by electing Bangladesh as one of the Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly. We shall make every effort to contribute towards your effort, Sir, in promoting international peace, co-operation and development.
125.	We would also like to convey our deep gratitude to Mr. Jorge Illueca for his valuable contribution as President of the thirty-eighth session of the General Assembly. The constructive role played by his country, Panama, in various issues, particularly in the Contadora Group, has earned our admiration.
126.	I should also like to record our sincere gratitude to the Secretary-General for his dedicated and untiring efforts in upholding the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and for the courage and perseverance with which he has continued to work towards the achievement of our shared objectives of international peace, progress, co-operation and development. We have read with interest his illuminating report on the work of the Organization which constitutes an important contribution to the work of the current session of the General Assembly.
127.	We have viewed with deep concern the fact that the arms race, both nuclear and conventional, continued at a feverish pitch over the last year. We have also witnessed with even deeper concern the break-off of bilateral negotiations between the two super-Powers. We hope that serious negotiations will commence between them in respect of both theatre nuclear forces and START at the earliest possible opportunity. In this context, we note with satisfaction the very recent high-level contacts between the two super-Powers.
128.	World military expenditure is now estimated to reach about a trillion dollars. This unrestricted use of scarce resources for military purposes has, on the one hand, created a sense of fear and uncertainty among nations and, on the other, has added to the cost of social opportunity world-wide. The close relationship between disarmament and development does not need any elaboration. It is now universally recognized that a redirection of resources from armaments to development will be in the interest of the developed and developing countries alike. But how to transfer resources from armament to development? President Hossain Muhammad Ershad, in his address in 1982 to the Assembly's twelfth special session—the second special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament— made a number of important proposals in this regard. These proposals for arresting the arms race deserve to be studied and examined carefully for the greater benefit of mankind.
129.	The tragedy of Palestine is the tragedy of our times. No other issue in recent times has evoked so much attention and concern as the plight of the Palestinians. For more than three decades, the inter-national community has witnessed the sufferings and anguish of the Palestinian people, who were forcibly uprooted from their hearths and homes. It is now universally recognized that the heart of the problem is the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to establish a State of their own with Jerusalem as its capital. It is regrettable that Israel continues to flout the decisions and resolutions of the United Nations and persists in its illegal occupation of Arab and Palestine territories, including the Holy City of Al-Quds al-Sharif. The position of Bangladesh on this question has always been firm and consistent and we have always extended our unstinted support to our Palestinian brothers in their struggle for the restoration of their inalienable right to self-determination under the leadership of the PLO, their sole and legitimate representative. We condemn the continued Israeli occupation of Arab and Palestinian territories and the establishment of settlements in the occupied lands. We are convinced that the situation demands a comprehensive settlement of the problem which must be based on total and unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces from all Palestinian and Arab territories and the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. We are also convinced that the participation of the PLO, on an equal footing with all other parties, in the peace process is indispensable. It is in this context that we extended our full support to the Arab peace plan as a sound basis for establishing peace in the region. We commend the Secretary-General for his sincere endeavours and for his untiring efforts to restore peace in the region.
130.	We are happy to note that the recently reconstituted Government of Lebanon is gradually but surely progressing towards restoring peace and stability there. All peace-loving countries wish Lebanon a quick return to normalcy, which can ensure its sovereignty and territorial integrity. However, this most desired objective cannot be attained without the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops and the termination of its control of southern Lebanon.
131.	It is an outrage to the conscience of the international community that South Africa still continues to pursue its abhorrent policy of apartheid. This policy is not only contrary to the values of contemporary civilization; it is also against the tenets of all scriptures and religions. Therefore, those who, directly or indirectly, sustain and tolerate the continuance of the policy of apartheid in South Africa are casting an indelible blemish on the history of their own civilizations and transgressing the laws of their own scriptures.
132.	Bangladesh is irrevocably committed to the cause of the oppressed peoples of Namibia and southern Africa and we renew our unstinted support to them in their legitimate struggle for freedom, liberty and human dignity. Bangladesh will continue to take an active part in the United Nations Council for Namibia, and we are convinced that the independence of Namibia can and must be achieved on the basis of the United Nations resolutions, particularly Security Council resolution 435 (1978), which constitutes the only acceptable basis for the peaceful transition of the territory from colonial subjugation to independence. We have consistently asked for its full implementation without any pre-condition. Similarly, we have rejected the persistent attempts to link the independence of Namibia with extraneous issues.
133.	The continuing conflict between Iran and Iraq is a matter of serious concern to all of us. This war has continued for too long and it has brought pain and suffering, death and destruction to the people of both countries. We are all painfully aware of how the intensification of this conflict can jeopardize international peace and security. We take this opportunity to reiterate our appeal to both Iran and Iraq to take full advantage of the many peace initiatives which have been placed before them to bring their conflict to an end. The ongoing efforts of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries and the United Nations must be maintained to restore peace in the region. The Secretary- General deserves our sincere appreciation for the valuable efforts that he has undertaken for the peaceful resolution of this conflict.
134.	Bangladesh is deeply committed to the Charter of the United Nations and to the principles of sovereign equality of States, territorial integrity, the non-use of force, non-interference and non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States, the right of every nation to self-determination and the peaceful settlement of disputes. We therefore view the developments in Afghanistan and Kampuchea with deep concern. In this context, we call upon our friendly country, the Soviet Union, to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. We believe that the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan is a sine qua non now of a satisfactory and viable solution of the Afghan problem. Similarly, we call upon Viet Nam to withdraw its troops from Kampuchea. It is our conviction that the peoples of Afghanistan and Kampuchea should be allowed to determine their destiny without outside interference and intervention, and this is possible only with the total and unconditional withdrawal of all foreign forces from their territories.
135.	The United Nations has been seized of the Cyprus question for the past two decades and we are all conscious of the unfortunate events that have led to the present situation. The recent developments in Cyprus, however, should not be viewed in isolation from the overall unresolved question. Bangladesh has consistently supported the independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty and non-aligned status of Cyprus. At the same time, we emphasize that no solution of the problem can be lasting unless it takes into account the legitimate aspirations of the two communities. The recent developments have once again demonstrated that the establishment of a bi- communal, bi-zonal Federated State of Cyprus is the only viable solution of the problem, and a beginning to that end must be made through the resumption of meaningful intercommunal talks. My delegation will continue to extend its fullest co-operation to the Secretary-General in his mission of good offices on the Cyprus problem.
136.	Bangladesh shares the perception that regional and international peace and security would be promoted through the creation of zones of peace and nuclear-weapon-free zones in various parts of the world. As a littoral State, we have consistently attached great importance to the creation of the Indian Ocean as a zone of peace and have maintained that the successful implementation of General Assembly resolution 2832 (XXVI), containing the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace, will be in the interest of peace and security. It is in this context that we have actively participated in the deliberations of the Ad hoc Committee on the Indian Ocean and have extended our full support to the convening of an international conference at Colombo without delay.
137.	My delegation shares with the Secretary-General his deep concern at the increasing recurrence of acts of international terrorism. We believe that concerted efforts by all States Members of the United Nations at both the national and the international level are necessary for the total elimination of this scourge, which is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations, the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration on the Strengthening of International Security. It is in this spirit that my delegation would like to emphasize its profound abhorrence of this phenomenon, which is taking an increasing toll of innocent lives, and would like to call upon all countries of the world to co-operate closely with one another with a view to combating and preventing such acts.
138.	Bangladesh has friendly relations with both the Koreas, and this position has been reflected in our role in all international forums, especially in the United Nations and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries. Bangladesh hopes that peaceful reunification will be successfully achieved, and we shall support all efforts towards that end. Bangladesh believes that the primary responsibility for attaining a viable solution of the issue of reunification through peaceful means rests with the Koreans themselves.
139.	A decade ago this august Assembly adopted the historic Declaration and the Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order as well as the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States. More than anything else, these documents symbolized the high hopes and reflected the aspirations of the developing countries. More importantly, they provided the blueprint for the long-awaited integration of the developing countries into the mainstream of the global economy as partners in development in the true spirit of interdependence. But, 10 years later, their hopes and aspirations still remain as distant as ever. A global perspective and a pragmatic attitude towards negotiations seem to have suffered a setback. The spirit of multilateralism itself faces the most serious threat since the 1960s. This Assembly of nations is only too aware of the abortive negotiations in recent years, particularly in the area of international economic co-operation for development.
140.	While it is true that interdependence has been recognized as a reality in formal gatherings at the highest levels, nothing has materialized to translate this awareness into meaningful actions. The proposal for global negotiations has been the centre-piece of the initiatives of the developing countries aimed at making interdependence work in the collective interest and for the good of all, laying the groundwork for a global economic system more responsive to the demands of equity, justice and fair play. The gradual erosion that this important concept of multilateralism has suffered in recent years is painfully revealing. We believe that this matter merits serious review by the Assembly in the context of its resolution 34/138, which was adopted by consensus but which remains unimplemented so far.
141.	This year the General Assembly is also entrusted with yet another very important responsibility, that is, to carry out the review and appraisal of the implementation of the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade. The Strategy, which was adopted by consensus, and the subsequent General Assembly resolution 38/152, spelt out in clear terms the aims and objectives of this exercise. My delegation notes with regret the slow pace of this important exercise. The global economic situation, and particularly the economic situation of the developing countries, demands that we broach the review exercise much more seriously than at present. The findings of the latest report of the Committee for Development Planning, as well as the	World Economic survey and other similar documents, are only too revealing of the acute nature of the crisis faced by the developing countries.
142.	Despite the reversal of recessionary trends which began last year, we cannot lose sight of the continuing seriousness of the critical situation faced by the world economy as a whole. The reported upswing in economic growth in North America should not lull us into complacency. Recovery in Western Europe continues to be weak. The expansion of world output at 2 per cent in 1983 is at best modest for a period of economic recovery. As for the developing countries, they have suffered a persistent and gradual decline in the growth of output since 1979. These countries as a group recorded no growth at all in 1983. For most of them, per capita incomes have fallen for several consecutive years and investment expenditures are generally well below the levels attained in the 1970s. The modest increase in world output has for the first time in decades not been accompanied by a proportionate gain in exports. These have practically stagnated, and in the case of most developing countries there has been a sharp decline in export volumes. In value terms, world trade actually declined by 2 per cent in 1983.
143.	Suffice it to say that the actual economic performance of the developing countries since 1980 has been in stark contrast to the growth path traced in the International Development Strategy.
144.	The economic crisis in Africa, which has been characterized by a persistent drop in the rate of growth of overall output of goods and services over the years, is a case in point. Apart from the consequences of recession, at least 150 million people and 22 countries in this otherwise potentially rich continent have been adversely affected by drought. Unemployment and malnutrition have been intensified, and every major sector of the economy has suffered a decline.
145.	The stifling effects of recession have been no less severe in the case of Asia. It is true that a number of Asian countries were able to withstand the onslaught of recession, but that provides no cushion or solace to the majority of those countries, particularly the least developed among them. The largest concentration of the world's desperately poor and hungry— estimated at around 900 million people—is still located in Asia.
146.	Though 10 of the 22 largest debtor developing countries are Latin American, the debt problem is not confined to that region alone. The capital- importing countries now owe the staggering sum of about $730 billion. The main point is that the debt problem became a crisis only when the debtor countries' growth in export earnings declined significantly in the face of mounting protectionism. This was further accentuated by the depth, dimensions and duration of the recession. It is to be noted that, in spite of the rapid increase in the foreign indebtedness of the capital-importing developing countries during the 1970s, their debt-to-export ratio did not change much, since exports rose at practically the same rate as foreign indebtedness. This situation changed radically in the early 1980s as their export earnings failed to grow and even declined.
147.	Through all these crises, the countries which have suffered most have been the least developed countries. By the very nature of their economics, these countries, which are located mostly in Africa and Asia, lack the wherewithal to withstand such acute difficulties, and in a situation of prolonged and intensified crisis their vulnerability increased out of all proportion. No wonder the early 1980s have witnessed an increase in their ranks. Primarily dependent on commodities, whose prices continue to remain weak, their difficulties have been further accentuated by a declining flow of official development assistance. The fate of negotiations on the replenishment of IDA resources is a case in point. And commodity prices, despite their relative increase in 1983, still remain nearly 20 per cent below the level of 1980. The slow pace in the implementation of the Substantial New Programme of Action for the 1980s for the Least Developed Countries remains a matter of deep concern.
148.	In these circumstances, my delegation's earnest hope is that the mid-term global review of the implementation of the Substantial New Programme of Action to be undertaken next year will be broached with seriousness and sympathy by all countries, developed and developing alike, to accelerate the development of the least developed countries.
149.	We strongly believe that the objective of all development efforts is the improvement of the quality of life. In this context, we note with appreciation the efforts being made in the economic and social fields by the United Nations system, in particular the strategy being pursued by UNICEF to achieve a revolution in child survival and development and the efforts being made by UNDP concerning human resources development. We also note with great satisfaction the successful and comprehensive outcome of the International Conference on Population, held at Mexico City from 6 to 14 August 1984.
150.	As we approach the mid-point of the 1980s, the world economy in general remains strained by the legacies of a prolonged and disastrous recession. Those legacies have virtually crippled the development momentum of the overwhelming majority of developing countries. Cut-backs in investments, the suspension of longer-term development projects and public programmes, the slashing of expenditures in social sectors that these countries had to endure over the years of recession have taken many of them to the verge of serious political and social upheavals.
151.	These difficulties are too deeply entrenched to be overcome easily as a by-product of recovery in a few countries. Certainly, a proliferation of protectionist barriers in the industrial countries has not made this task at all easier. Even existing commodity agreements which have served the international community well over the years are now falling apart owing to the lack of political support by some of these countries. In finance, apart from the uncertainty surrounding debt rescheduling, the constraints of high interest rates, inadequate flow of official development assistance, the drying up of bank lending and the overall deflationary policy of the international monetary and financial system could stifle any stirring of economic activities in a large number of the developing countries.
152.	If the recovery is to spread to the developing countries, a series of measures must be undertaken immediately to reactivate their economies; and if this recovery is to be a sustained and durable one, the reinvigoration and improvement of the international trading and financial system must be undertaken in earnest and as a matter of priority. It is also imperative for the sake of the sustained health of the world economy that growth in the developing countries be undertaken as a self-sustained and mutually- reinforcing process and not merely as a by-product of growth elsewhere, because if we do not deal with the more fundamental structural problems in an adequate manner, crisis will in the end overwhelm us. We must therefore act seriously and with pragmatism before it is too late.
153.	The International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade called for the necessary political impetus to carry out essential adjustment, intensification and reformulation of policy measures in the light of evolving needs and developments. We cannot delay that any longer. We must once again demonstrate the same political will and vision that enabled us to establish this great assembly of nations to implement our commitment to its Charter.
154.	In this connection I should like to inform the Assembly briefly of developments in my country.
155.	Soon after assuming responsibility, the present Government, under the leadership of President Hossain Muhammad Ershad, initiated some drastic reforms covering the entire gamut of national life. The reform measures taken by the present Government include economic reform aimed at stopping waste, boosting production and giving maximum encouragement to the development of the private sector. The most spectacular among the reform measures, however, have been the administrative reforms, based on the principles of decentralization and devolution of power to the common people, and the judicial reforms, also based on the principle of decentralization. Under the new system, the administration has been taken right to the doorsteps of the country's vast rural population. The grass-roots units have now become the focal points of all local activities. This means that through these units, known as upazillas, the vast rural population of Bangladesh will now have the full power to decide and control its own affairs for itself.
156.	While these measures of reform continue, I should like to draw attention to the unprecedented floods which have struck my country this year, causing great misery to our people and widespread damage to our crops. The Government of Bangladesh is doing all that is humanly possible to overcome the effects of this exceptional disaster, which has not yet ended. Our President has been overseeing relief measures personally by daily visits to affected areas throughout the country. We take this opportunity to acknowledge with appreciation the help and assistance which we have received and are receiving from a number of friendly countries and organizations.
157.	Regionally, our patient diplomacy in forging co-operation among the South Asian countries has borne fruit. The primary objective of Bangladesh's 1980 proposal for regional co-operation was to harmonize and strengthen the efforts of those regional developing countries to establish collective self- reliance, for the common benefit of their peoples. The integrated programme of action within the framework of South Asian Regional Co-operation was launched at the Foreign Ministers' meeting at New Delhi in August 1983, which was followed by the ministerial meeting at Male in July 1984. These ministerial meetings were preceded by meetings of a number of senior officials to work out this programme. It is a matter for satisfaction that as many as nine areas of co-operation have been identified and that working groups have been set up to study and deal with them. The selection of Dhaka as the venue for the first South Asian Regional Co-operation summit, to be held in the last quarter of 1985, is a demonstration of the faith and confidence placed in Bangladesh.
158.	Before I conclude, let me say a few words on the observance next year of the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. The present state of deteriorating international relations gives added importance to the observance of the occasion. These are challenging times for the world Organization. It is being increasingly bypassed, and the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council are being systematically ignored, and with impunity. The continuing economic crisis is wreaking havoc on the world economy, and particularly the economies of the developing countries. The North- South dialogue and the establishment of the new international economic order have made little progress.
159.	In view of all this, in some sections of world public opinion the United Nations is suffering from what may be called a crisis of confidence; but it need not be so if Member States are determined to uphold the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, which are as valid today as they were at the time of the founding of the Organization almost four decades ago.
160.	In spite of its weaknesses, the United Nations remains the appropriate and irreplaceable international forum for finding solutions to major world problems, some of which I have enumerated today. Our faith in the Charter of the United Nations and our commitment to its purposes and principles remain as unshakeable as ever. The observance of the fortieth anniversary will provide Member States with an opportunity to rededicate themselves to the principles enshrined in the Charter and to reaffirm their support for the world Organization. On this solemn occasion, let us resolve anew to work for the promotion of the purposes and principles of the United Nations and for the strengthening of the Organization in order to make it an effective instrument for the fulfilment of its central role in the maintenance of international peace and security, in developing and strengthening co-operation among nations, in establishing equitable economic relations among States and in promoting fundamental rights and freedoms throughout the world.


I bring the fraternal greetings of a country covering 274,000 square kilometres, where 7 million men, women and children refuse henceforth to die of ignorance, hunger and thirst, even though they are not yet able to have a real life, after a quarter of a century as a sovereign State represented here at the United Nations.
3.	I come to this thirty-ninth session of the General Assembly to speak on behalf of a people which, on the land of its ancestors, has chosen from now on to assert itself and to take responsibility for its own history, in both its positive and negative aspects, without any complexes.
4.	I come here, mandated by the National Council of the Revolution of Burkina Faso, to express the views of my people on the problems that have been included on the General Assembly's agenda, which form the tragic background of the events which are sadly undermining the foundations of the world late in this twentieth century. It is a world of chaos, in which the human race is torn apart by struggles between the great and the not-so-great, attacked by armed bands and subjected to violence and plunder. It is a world in which the nations, eluding international jurisdiction, command groups beyond the law, which, with gun in hand, live by preying on others and organizing the most despicable kinds of trafficking.
5.	I do not intend to enunciate dogmas here. I am neither a messiah nor a prophet. I possess no truths. My only ambition is a twofold aspiration: first, to be able to speak in simple language, the language of facts and clarity, on behalf of my people, the people of Burkina Faso, and, secondly, to be able to express in my own way the feelings of that mass of people who are disinherited—those who belong to that world maliciously dubbed "the third world"—and to state, even if I cannot make them understood, the reasons that have led us to rise up, all of which explains our interest in the United Nations, the demands of our rights drawing strength in the clear awareness of our duties.
6.	Nobody will be surprised to hear us associate the former Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, with that despised rag-bag, the third world, which the other worlds invented at the time of our independence in order better to ensure our intellectual, cultural, economic and political alienation. We want to fit in there without at all justifying this great swindle of history, still less accepting that we are a backward world left behind by the West. Rather, we do so to affirm our awareness of belonging to a three-continent whole and to state, as one of the non-aligned countries, our deeply felt conviction that a special solidarity unites the three continents of Asia, Latin America and Africa in the same battle against the same political traffickers and economic exploiters.
7.	Thus to recognize our presence in the third world is, to paraphrase Jose Marti, to affirm that we feel on our cheek every blow struck against every other man in the world. So far, we have turned the other cheek. The slaps in the face have been redoubled and the evil-doers have felt no tenderness in their hearts. They have trampled on the truth of the just. They have betrayed the word of Christ. They have turned His cross into a club, and after putting on His robe they have torn our bodies and souls to shreds. They have obscured His message, making it a Western one, whereas we saw it as a message of universal liberation. Now our eyes have been opened to the class struggle and there will be no more blows dealt against us. It must be proclaimed that there will be no salvation for our peoples unless we turn our backs completely on all the models that all the charlatans of that type have tried to sell us for 20 years. There can be no salvation for us unless we reject those models; there can be no development without that break.
8.	Now all the new "master minds" are awakening, roused by the dizzy increase of millions of men in rags and frightened by the threat to their digestion of this multitude hounded by hunger. They are beginning to change their tune and are again anxiously seeking among us miraculous ideas for new forms of development for our countries. In order to understand this it is necessary only to read the proceedings of innumerable colloquys and seminars.
9.	I certainly do not wish to ridicule the patient efforts of those honest intellectuals who, because they have eyes to see, have observed the terrible consequences of the ravages caused in the third world by the so-called development specialists.
10.	I fear that the results of all the energies seized by the Prosperos of all kinds may be turned into a magic wand to be used to turn us back in to a world of slavery, dressed up according to the taste of our times. This fear is justified by the fact that the African petite bourgeoisie with its diplomas, if not that of the whole third world, is not ready—whether because of intellectual laziness or simply because it has sampled the Western way of life—to give up its privileges. It therefore forgets that all true political struggle requires a rigorous theoretical debate, and it refuses to do the thinking necessary in order to invent the new concepts needed to wage the kind of struggle to the death that is ahead of us. A passive and pathetic consumer group, it overflows with the "in" words of the West, just as it overflows with its whisky and champagne, in salons where there is a dubious kind of harmony. One will search in vain— the concepts of Blackness or the African personality now being a little outdated—for truly new ideas from the brains of our so-called intellectual giants. Words and ideas come to us from elsewhere. Our professors, engineers and economists are content simply to add a little colouring, because they have brought from the European universities of which they are the products only their diplomas and the surface smoothness of adjectives and superlatives. It is urgently necessary that our qualified personnel and those who work with ideas learn that there is no innocent writing. In these tempestuous times, we cannot leave it to our enemies of the past and of the present to think and to imagine and to create. We also must do so.
11.	Before it is too late—and it is already late—this elite, these men of Africa, of the third world, must come to their senses; in other words, they must turn to their own societies, they must look at this wretchedness that we have inherited, to understand that the battle for thought that will help the disinherited masses not only is not a vain one but can become credible at the international level. They must provide a faithful picture for their own peoples, a picture that will enable them to carry out profound changes in the social and political situation so that we can free ourselves from the foreign domination and exploitation that can lead our States only to failure.
12.	This is something that we understood, we, the people of Burkina Faso, on that night of 4 August 1983, when the stars first began to shine in the heavens of our homeland. We had to take the lead of the peasant uprisings in the countryside, threatened by desertification, exhausted by hunger and thirst, and abandoned. We had to give some sense of meaning to the revolts of the unemployed urban masses, frustrated and tired of seeing the limousines of the alienated elite flash by following the head of State, who offered them only false solutions devised and conceived in the brains of others. We had to give an ideological soul to the just struggles of our masses mobilized against the monstrosity of imperialism. Instead of a minor, short-lived revolt, we had to have revolution, the eternal struggle against all domination. Others have noted this before me and yet others will say after me how broad the gap now is between the rich peoples and those that aspire only to have enough to eat, enough to drink, to survive and to defend their dignity, but nobody could believe how much of the food of our people has gone to feed the rich man's cow.
13.	In the case of Upper Volta, the process was even more crystal clear. We demonstrated the essence of all the calamities that have crushed the so-called developing countries.
14.	The truth about aid, represented as the panacea for all ills and often praised beyond all rhyme or reason, has been revealed. Very few countries have been so inundated with aid of all kinds as has mine. Aid is supposed to help development, but one can look in vain in what used to be Upper Volta to see any sign of any kind of development. The people who were in power through either naivety or class selfishness could not or else did not want to gain control over this inflow from the outside or grasp the scope of it and use it in the interests of our people.
15.	Analysing a table that was published in 1983 by the Sahel Club, Jacques Giri, in his book entitled The Sahel Tomorrow concluded quite sensibly that aid to the Sahel, because of its content and because of the machinery in place, was only aid for survival. He emphasized that only 30 per cent of that aid would enable the Sahel simply to remain alive. According to Jacques Giri, this outside aid was designed only for the continued development of the unproductive sectors, imposing intolerable burdens on our small budgets, completely disrupting our countryside, creating deficits in our trade balance and, in fact, speeding up our indebtedness.
16.	Here are just a few standard facts to describe what Upper Volta used to be like: 7 million inhabitants, with more than 6 million peasants; infant mortality at 180 per 1,000; life expectancy of 40 years; an illiteracy rate of 98 per cent, if literacy is considered to mean being able to read, write and speak a language; one doctor for 50,000 inhabitants; 16 per cent receiving schooling; and lastly, a gross domestic product of 53,356 CFA francs, that is, just over $100 per capita.
17.	The diagnosis obviously was a very bad one. The source of the evil was political and so the only cure must be a political one.
18.	Of course, we encourage aid that can help us to manage without aid, but in general the aid and assistance policies merely led us to become completely disorganized, to enslave ourselves, to shirk our responsibility in our economic, political and cultural areas.
19.	We have chosen a different path to achieve better results. We have chosen to establish new techniques. We have chosen to seek forms of organization that are better adapted to our civilization, abruptly and once and for all rejecting all kinds of outside diktats, so that we can create the conditions for a dignity in keeping with our ambitions.
20.	We refuse simple survival. We want to ease the pressures, to free our countryside from medieval stagnation or regression. We want to democratize our society, to open up our minds to a universe of collective responsibility, so that we may be bold enough to invent the future. We want to change the administration and reconstruct it with a different kind of civil servant. We want to get our army involved with the people in productive work and remind it constantly that, without patriotic training, a soldier is only a criminal with power. That is our political programme.
21.	At the economic level, we are learning to live simply, to accept and to demand of ourselves the austerity that we need in order to carry out our great designs.
22.	Thanks to the revolutionary solidarity fund, which is fed by voluntary contributions, we are now beginning to deal with the cruel questions posed by the drought. We support and have applied the principles of the Declaration of Alma-Ata expanding our primary health care. We endorse as a State policy the global strategy of GOBI FFF advocated by UNICEF.
23.	We believe that through the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office, the United Nations should enable those countries affected by drought to establish a medium- and long-term plan to achieve self- sufficiency in food.
24.	To prepare for the twenty-first century, we have begun, by creating a special tombola section, an immense campaign for the education and training of our children in a new school. The programme is called "Let's teach our children". Through committees to defend the revolution, we have established a vast house-building programme—500 units in three months—and we are also building roads, small water collectors, and so forth. Our economic ambition is to work to ensure that the use of the mind and the strength of each inhabitant of Burkina Faso will produce what is necessary to provide two meals a day and drinking-water.
25.	We swear that in future in Burkina Faso nothing will be done without the participation of the people of Burkina Faso themselves, nothing that has not been decided by us, that has not been prepared by us. There shall be no more attacks on our honour and dignity.
26.	Strengthened by this conviction, we want our words to cover all those who suffer, all those whose dignity has been crushed by a minority or a system.
27.	Let me say to those who are listening to me now that I speak not only on behalf of Burkina Faso, my country which I love so much, but also on behalf of all those who suffer, wherever they may be.
28.	I speak on behalf of those millions of human beings who are in ghettos because their skin is black, or because they have a different kind of culture, those whose status is hardly higher than that of an animal.
29.	I suffer, too, on behalf of those Indians who have been massacred, trampled on and humiliated and who, for centuries, have been confined to reservations, so that they do not have any aspirations to any rights whatsoever, so that their culture cannot become enriched 'through contact with other cultures, including that of the invader.
30.	I speak out on behalf of those who are unemployed because of a structurally unjust system which has now been completely disrupted, the unemployed who have been reduced to seeing their lives as only the reflection of the lives of those who have more than themselves.
31.	I speak on behalf of women throughout the entire world who suffer from a system of exploitation imposed on them by men. As far as we are concerned, we are willing to welcome all suggestions from anywhere in the world that will help us to promote the full development and prosperity of the women of Burkina Faso. In return, we will share with all countries the positive experience we are now undertaking with our women, who are now involved at all levels of the State apparatus and social life in Burkina Faso, women who struggle and who say with us that the slave who will not shoulder responsibility to rebel does not deserve pity. That slave will alone be responsible for his own wretchedness if he has any illusions whatsoever about the suspect indulgence shown by a master who pretends to give him freedom. Only struggle helps us to become free, and we call on all our sisters of all races to rise up to regain their rights.
32.	I speak on behalf of the mothers of our poor countries who see their children dying of malaria and diarrhoea, unaware that to save them there are simple methods available but which the science of the multinationals does not offer to them, preferring to invest in cosmetics laboratories and engage in cosmetic surgery to satisfy the whims and caprices of a few men and women who feel they have become too fat because of too many calories in the rich food they consume with regularity. That must make even members of this Assembly dizzy—not to mention the peoples of the Sahel. We have decided to adopt and popularize the methods that have been advocated by WHO and UNICEF.
33.	I speak on behalf of the child, the child of the poor man, who is hungry and who furtively eyes the wealth piled up in the rich man's shop, a shop that is protected by a thick window, a window which is defended by an impassable grille, the grille guarded by a policeman in a helmet with gloves and a bludgeon, the policeman placed there by the father of another child, who comes there to serve himself or rather to be served because these are the guarantees of capitalistic representativeness and norms of the system.
34.	I speak on behalf of the artists—poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, actors and so on—people of good will who see their art being prostituted by the show-business magicians.
35.	I cry out on behalf of the journalists who have been reduced to silence or else to lies simply to avoid the hardships of unemployment.
36.	I protest on behalf of the athletes of the entire world whose muscles are being exploited by political systems or by those who deal in the modern slavery of the stadium.
37.	My country is the essence of all the miseries of peoples, a tragic synthesis of all the suffering of mankind but also, and above all, the synthesis of the hopes of our struggles. That is why I speak out on behalf of the sick who are anxiously looking to see what science can do for them—but that science has been taken over by the gun merchants. My thoughts go to all those who have been affected by the destruction of nature, those 30 million who are dying every year, crushed by that most fearsome weapon, hunger.
38.	As a soldier, I cannot forget that obedient soldier who does what he is told, whose finger is on the trigger and who knows that the bullet which is going to leave his gun will bring only a message of death.
39.	Lastly, I speak out in indignation as I think of the Palestinians, whom this most inhuman humanity has replaced with another people, a people who only yesterday were themselves being martyred at leisure. I think of the valiant Palestinian people, the families which have been splintered and split up and are wandering throughout the world seeking asylum. Courageous, determined, stoic and tireless, the Palestinians remind us all of the need and moral obligation to respect the rights of a people. Along with their Jewish brothers, they are anti-Zionists.
40.	Standing alongside my soldier brothers of Iran and Iraq, who are dying in a fratricidal and suicidal war, I wish also to feel close to my comrades of Nicaragua, whose ports are being mined, whose towns are being bombed and who, despite all, face up with courage and lucidity to their fate. I suffer with all those in Latin America who are suffering from imperialist domination.
41.	I wish to stand side by side with the peoples of Afghanistan and Ireland, the peoples of Grenada and East Timor, each of those peoples seeking happiness in keeping with their dignity and the laws of their own culture.
42.	I rise up on behalf of all who seek in vain any forum in the world to make their voices heard and to have themselves taken seriously.
43.	Many have already spoken from this rostrum. Many will speak after me. But only a few will take the real decisions, although we are all officially considered equals. I speak on behalf of all those who seek in vain for a forum in the world where they can be heard. Yes, I wish to speak for all those—the forgotten—because I am a man and nothing that is human is alien to me.
44.	Our revolution in Burkina Faso takes account of the ills of all peoples. We are also inspired by all the experiences of mankind, from the very first breath of the first human being.
45.	We wish to enjoy the inheritance of all the revolutions of the world, all the liberation struggles of the third-world peoples. We are trying to learn from the great upheavals that have transformed the world. We have drawn the lessons of the American revolution, the lessons of its victory against colonial domination, and the consequences of that victory. We endorse the doctrine of non-interference by Europeans in American affairs and non-interference by Americans in European affairs. In 1823, Monroe said "America for the Americans". We would say "Africa for the Africans; Burkina Faso for the Burkinabe". The French revolution of 1789, which disrupted the foundations of absolutism, has taught us the rights of man linked to the rights of peoples to freedom. The great revolution of October 1917 transformed the world and made possible the victory of the proletariat, shook the foundations of capitalism and made possible the dreams of justice of the French Commune.
46.	Open to all the wishes of the peoples and their revolutions, learning also from the terrible failures that have led to truly sad infringements of human rights, we want to preserve from each revolution only that essence of purity that prohibits us from becoming servants to the realities of others, even though in our thinking we find that there is a community of interests among us.
47.	There must be no more deceit. The new international economic order, for which we are struggling and will continue to struggle, can be achieved only if we manage to do away with the old order, which completely ignores us, only if we insist on the place which is ours in the political organization of the world, only if we realize our importance in the world and obtain the right to decision-making with respect to the machinery governing trade, economic and monetary affairs at the world level.
48.	The new international economic order is simply one among all the other rights of peoples—the right to independence, to the free choice of the form and structure of government, the right to development— and like all the rights of peoples it is a right which can be gained only through the struggle of the peoples. It will never be obtained by any act of generosity by any Power whatsoever.
49.	I continue to have unshakeable confidence—a confidence I share with the immense community of non-aligned countries—that, despite our peoples' battering-ram cries of distress, our group will preserve its cohesion, strengthen its power of collective negotiation, find allies among all nations, and begin, together with all who can still hear us, to organize a really new system of international economic relations.
50.	I agreed to come to speak before the Assembly because, despite the criticism of certain major contributors, the United Nations remains the ideal forum for our demands, the place where the legitimacy of countries which have no voice is recognized. This was expressed very accurately by the Secretary- General, when he wrote:
"The United Nations reflects in a unique way the aspirations and frustrations of many nations and groups all over the world. One of its great merits is that all nations—including the weak, the oppressed and the victims of injustice"—that is, us—"can get a hearing and have a platform even in the face of the hard realities of power. A just cause, however frustrated or disregarded, can find a voice in the United Nations. This is not always a well- liked attribute of the Organization, but it is an essential one."
The meaning and scope of the Organization could not be better defined.
51.	Therefore, it is absolutely essential for the good of each of us that the United Nations be strengthened and provided with the means to take action. That is why we endorse the Secretary-General's proposals to this end, to help the Organization break the many deadlocks which have been carefully preserved by the great Powers in order to discredit it in the eyes of the world.
52.	Since I recognize the admittedly limited merits of the Organization, I cannot but rejoice to see new Members join us that is why the delegation of Burkina Faso welcomes the admission of the 159th Member of the United Nations, the State of Brunei Darussalam.
53.	The folly of those who, by a quirk of fate, rule the world makes it imperative for the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries—which, I hope, the State of Brunei Darussalam will soon join—to consider as one of the permanent goals of its struggle the achievement of disarmament, which is an essential aspect of the principal conditions of our right to development.
54.	In our view, there must be serious studies of all the factors which have led to the calamities which have befallen the world. In this connection, President Fidel Castro stated our view admirably at the opening of the Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at Havana in September 1979, when he said:
"Three hundred billion dollars could build 600,000 schools, with a capacity for 400 million children; or 60 million comfortable homes, for 300 million people; or 30,000 hospitals, with 18 million beds; or 20,000 factories, with jobs for more than 20 million workers; or an irrigation system for 150 million hectares of land—that, with the application of technology, could feed a billion people." If we multiply those numbers by 10—and I am sure that that is a conservative figure—we can see how much mankind wastes every year in the military field, that is, against peace.
55.	It is easy to see why the indignation of the peoples is easily transformed into rebellion and revolution in the face of the crumbs tossed to them in the ignominious form of some aid, to which utterly humiliating conditions are sometimes attached. It can be understood why, in the fight for development, we consider ourselves to be tireless combatants for peace.
56.	We swear to struggle to ease tension, to introduce the principles of civilized life into international relations and to extend these to all parts of the world. That means that we can no longer stand by passively and watch people haggle over concepts.
57.	We reiterate our determination to work actively for peace; to take our place in the struggle for disarmament; to take action in the field of international politics as a decisive factor, free of all hindrance by any of the big Powers, whatever may be their designs.
58.	But the quest for peace also involves the strict application of the right of countries to independence. On this point, the most pathetic—indeed, the most appalling—example is found in the Middle East, where, with arrogance, insolence and incredible stubbornness, a small country, Israel, has for more than 20 years, with the unspeakable complicity of its powerful protector, the United States, continued to defy the international community.
59.	Only yesterday, Jews were consigned to the horrors of the crematorium, but Israel scorns history by inflicting on others the tortures it suffered.
60.	In any event, Israel—whose people we love for its courage and sacrifices of the past—should realize that the conditions for its own tranquillity are not to be found in military strength financed from outside. Israel must begin to learn to be a nation like other nations, one among many.
61.	For the present, we declare from this rostrum our militant, active solidarity with the fighters, both men and women, of the wonderful people of Palestine, for we know that there is no suffering that has no end.
62.	Analysing the economic and political situation in Africa, we cannot fail to stress our serious concern at the dangerous challenges to the rights of peoples hurled by certain nations which, secure in their alliances, openly flout international morality.
63.	We are naturally pleased at the decision to withdraw foreign troops from Chad so that the Chadian people themselves, without intermediaries, can find the way to put an end to that fratricidal war and finally be able to dry the tears that have been shed for so many years. But, despite the progress made here and there in the struggle of the African peoples for economic emancipation, our continent continues to reflect the essential reality of the contradictions between the big Powers and to be oppressed by the unbearable scourges of today's world.
64.	That is why we cannot accept and must unreservedly condemn the treatment of the people of Western Sahara by the Kingdom of Morocco, which has been using delaying tactics to postpone the day of reckoning that will in any event be forced upon it by the will of the Saharan people. I have visited the regions liberated by the Saharan people, and I have come to believe more firmly than ever that nothing will stop its progress towards the total liberation of its country under the militant and enlightened leadership of the Frente POLISARIO.
65.	I do not wish to dwell too long on the question of Mayotte and the islands of the Malagasy archipelago; since the facts are clear and the principles obvious, there is no need to dwell on them. Mayotte belongs to the Comoros; the islands of the archipelago belong to Madagascar.
66.	With regard to Latin America, we welcome the initiative of the Contadora Group as a positive step in the search for a just solution to the explosive situation in the region. Commander Daniel Ortega, speaking here on behalf of the revolutionary people of Nicaragua, made concrete proposals and posed some basic, direct questions. We hope to see peace in his country and throughout Central America on and after 15 October; this is what world public opinion calls for.
67.	Just as we condemned the foreign aggression against the island of Grenada, so we condemn all foreign intervention. Thus, we cannot remain silent about the foreign military intervention in Afghanistan.
68.	And yet there is one point that is so serious that each of us must give a very open and clear explanation of it. That question, as members can imagine, is that of South Africa. The unbelievable insolence of that country with respect to all nations of the world—even those that support the terrorism which it has erected into a State system designed physically to liquidate the black majority of that country—and the contempt that it has shown for all our resolutions constitute one of the most serious and overwhelming concerns of the world today.
69.	But the most tragic factor is not that South Africa has outlawed itself from the international community because of its apartheid laws, not even that it continues to occupy Namibia illegally and keep it under its colonialist and racist boot or that it continues with impunity to subject its neighbours to the laws of banditry. No, what is the most abject and the most humiliating for the human conscience is that it has made this tragedy a matter of everyday reality for millions of human beings, who have only their own body and the heroism of their bare hands to defend themselves. Sure of the complicity of the big Powers and the active support of certain among them, as well as of the criminal collaboration of some pathetic African leaders, the white minority simply ignores the feelings of all those people, everywhere in the world, who find the savage methods of that country to be absolutely intolerable.
70.	There was a time when international brigades went to defend the honour of nations that suffered aggression. Today, despite the agonizing open wounds that are suffered, all we do is vote for resolutions that do nothing more than call on a nation of pirates, which "destroys a smile as hail kills flowers", to mend its ways.
71.	We shall soon be celebrating the one-hundred- and-fiftieth anniversary of the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire. My delegation supports the proposal of Antigua and Barbuda for the commemoration of that event, which is of very great importance to African countries and the black world. For us, all that can be said throughout the world during the commemorative ceremonies must emphasize the terrible cost paid by Africa and the black world in the development of civilization. Nothing was given us in return, which no doubt explains the tragedy on our continent today. It is our blood that nourished the rise of capitalism that made possible our present condition of dependence and consolidated our underdevelopment. But we cannot hide the truth anymore; it cannot be ignored. The figures cannot be simply haggled away. For every black man who came to the plantations, five died or were crippled. And here I do not mention the disorganization of the continent and its consequences.
72.	While the entire world, thanks to you, Mr. President, with the help of the Secretary-General, will be commemorating that anniversary and noting this truth, it will understand why we long for peace among nations and why we demand our right to development with absolute equality through the organization and distribution of human resources. It is because we belong to one of the races that has suffered the most that we in Burkina Faso have sworn that we shall never accept any splitting up of our country or any denial of justice. It is the memory of that suffering that causes us to stand side by side with the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] against the armed bands of Israel. It is the memory of that suffering which, on the one hand, causes us to support the African National Congress of South Africa [ANC] and the South West Africa People's Organization [SWAPO] and, on the other, makes absolutely intolerable the presence in South Africa of men who say they are white and feel entitled on that account to set the whole world on fire. It is that memory of suffering that makes us put all our faith in the United Nations, with the common responsibility, the common task and the common hopes of us all.
73.	We demand that throughout the world the campaign to free Nelson Mandela be intensified so that his presence here at the next session of the General Assembly will be a victory of collective pride. In memory of our suffering and as a collective pardon, an international humanitarian prize should be given for all those who have contributed to the defence of human rights through their work and research. We call for cutting all budgets for space research by one ten-thousandth and devoting that amount to research in the field of health and to improving the human environment which has been disrupted by those "fireworks" which are harmful to the ecosystem.
74.	We also propose that the structures of the United Nations be reviewed and revised so that an end may be put to the scandal of the right of veto. The perverse effects of its abuse have, of course, been offset by the vigilance of some States that possess the veto right. However, nothing can justify that right— neither the size of the country nor its wealth.
75.	If the argument used to justify that inequity has been the cost paid during the Second World War, then those nations that have arrogated those rights to themselves should know that each of us has an uncle or a father who—like thousands of other innocent people recruited from the third world to defend the rights that had been flouted by the Hitlerite hordes— also suffered and died from Nazi bullets. Therefore, let those major Powers, which miss no opportunity to question the right of peoples, not be so arrogant. The absence of Africa from the club of those that have the right of veto is an injustice which must be ended.
76.	Lastly, my delegation would be failing in its duty if it did not call for the suspension of Israel and the pure and simple exclusion of South Africa from the United Nations. When, in the course of time, those countries have done what they must do to justify their presence in the international community, then we would be only too happy to welcome them here and to guide their first steps.
77.	We should like to reconfirm our confidence in the United Nations. We are grateful for the work which its agencies have done in Burkina Faso and for their presence side by side with us in the difficult times in which we are living. We are grateful to the members of the Security Council for having allowed us twice this year to preside over the work of the Council. We only hope the Council will recognize the principle of the struggle against the extermination of 30 million human beings each year through hunger, which today is more devastating than nuclear weapons.
78.	Our confidence and faith in the United Nations leads me to thank the Secretary-General for his visit, which we greatly appreciated; he came to see for himself the harsh reality of our life and to get a true picture of the aridity or the Sahel and the tragedy of desertification.
79.	I cannot conclude without paying a tribute to the President of the General Assembly, who, with his great intelligence and perception, will guide the work of this thirty-ninth session.
80.	I have travelled many thousands of kilometres to be here. I have come to ask each member to work together to put an end to the contempt of those who are unreasonable, to eliminate the tragic spectacle of children dying of hunger, to do away with ignorance, to ensure the triumph of the legitimate rebellion of peoples and to put an end to the use of weapons so that they can be laid down and fall silent, and to ensure that mankind will survive and that together, with the great poet Novalis we can all sing together:
"Soon the stars will come back to the Earth where they have long been gone; soon the sun will return, the star will shine again among the stars, all the races of the world will gather together again after a long separation, the old orphaned families will find one another again and every day there will be new discoveries, more people will embrace one another; then the inhabitants of the old days will come back to the Earth, the ashes will be relit in each tomb, the flame of life will burn again, *he old houses will be rebuilt, the old times will come again and history will be the dream of the present extended to infinity."
81.	Down with international reaction! Down with imperialism! Down with neo-colonialism! Down with "puppetism"!
82.	Eternal glory to the peoples who are struggling for their freedom! Eternal glory to the peoples who stand shoulder to shoulder to defend their dignity! Eternal victory to the peoples of Africa, Latin America and Asia in their struggle!
83.	Fatherland or death: we shall triumph.


First, may I add my voice to the voices of those who have already congratulated you, Sir, on your election to the presidency of the thirty-ninth session of the General Assembly.  I wish you every success in conducting its affairs in the months ahead. To the outgoing President, Mr. Illueca, I extend my thanks for the conscientious way in which he discharged his duties. And it is with great pleasure, and some pride, that I congratulate Brunei Darussalam on becoming, on 21 September, the 159th Member of the United Nations.
38.	Let me also, at the outset, pay a warm tribute to the Secretary General. His unceasing efforts to bring about the solution of the world's problems continue to win our highest esteem and support.
39.	Two years ago, the Secretary General, in his first report on the work of the Organization,' pointed to a crisis of multilateralism. He suggested that the world was "perilously near to a new international anarchy". His report this year shows, with customary perceptiveness and honesty, how little progress we have made towards the objectives he set two years ago. The Secretary General has told us frankly what we, the Member States, can do—indeed, have to do—to overcome the obstacles that have so far prevented our achieving the vision of a better world which inspired those who drew up the Charter of the United Nations now almost 40 years ago.
40.	At Fulton, Missouri, only a year after the birth of the United Nations, Winston Churchill spoke of the political will needed to tum the fledgling Organization into a practical force for peace. He said:
"We must make sure that its work is fruitful, that it is a reality and not a sham, that it is a force for action, and not merely a frothing of words, that it is a true temple of peace . . . and not merely a cockpit in a tower of Babel."
41.	Winston Churchill would certainly have endorsed the profoundly practical instinct that is so evident in the Secretary General’s reports. And 1, too, strongly support the Secretary General’s latest call for us to "ask ourselves what useful steps can be taken in a given situation rather than starting by thinking of all the extraneous reasons why they cannot be taken".
42.	For Churchill's insight is as relevant as ever. Effective international cooperation to tackle the world's problems needs more than polished speeches and well drafted resolutions. It needs courage and imagination; above all, it needs a steadfast commitment on the basis of universality to take practical action in pursuit of realistic objectives.
43.	Nowhere is that more necessary than in our approach to the problems of the world economy. The annual economic summit of the seven major industrialized countries is a good example of the kind of pragmatic approach to problem-solving I have in mind. Last June the United Kingdom hosted in London the tenth such meeting. We were able to reach a large measure of agreement on the essentials for world recovery. At the same time, we took real account of the difficulties which many countries still face. Despite those difficulties, the past 12 months have brought substantial improvements. Two years ago, world trade actually fell. Last year, it grew only 2 per cent. This year, the IMF has forecast growth in world trade of 8.5 per cent.
44.	This recovery has not been confined to the industrialized world. For many developing countries, too, the outlook has improved and is improving further. The current account deficit of the nonoil developing countries is this year expected to be less than half its level in 1981. And this year the growth rate for developing countries should reach 3.7 per cent. This significant improvement has not been achieved without hardship.
45.	I pay a tribute to the success adjustment policies pursued by many developing countries, often in the face of real social and political difficulties. These policies need to be sustained and more widely adopted if we are to manage and diminish the problem of international indebtedness, and they need the full support of the industrialized countries. This point has been rightly stressed by the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. de Larosiere. In his words:
"The efforts of developing countries need to be supported by the industrial countries, who have it in their power to create a more robust and dynamic world economy, as well as by concerted action to ensure adequate international financing flows and open trading conditions."
46.	A major cause of the problems of developing countries is the high level of international interest rates. The United States economy has shown how real new employment can be created in a society that is open and willing to face the need for change. But the current size of the United States budget deficit and the high interest rates that go with it still pose a threat to world recovery. We welcome the United States Administration's recognition of the need to tackle the problem. We hope that it will be sustained and carried into action. Lower world interest rates would benefit us all. They would ease the burden of debt repayment. That in turn would allow many countries to increase their imports, and a general increase in trade is in everybody's interest.
47.	The world's economic problems can only be solved through cooperation in this spirit of interdependence. Certainly my country is determined to work in close cooperation with debtor nations, case by case, to achieve mutually acceptable solutions to their difficulties. The challenge is to implement practical measures which stand a real chance of success.
48.	The British Government has put forward a number of proposals. We discussed them at the London Economic Summit in June. My colleague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lawson, described them at the IMF meeting in Washington yesterday. He made proposals for the use of multiyear rescheduling, for an enhanced role for the World Bank and its associates, for more private investment in debtor countries and for more stable long-term finance. If carried into practice, these proposals would do much to help the debtor countries. But, without doubt, the greatest contribution would come from sustained and widening recovery
49.	The industrialized countries have a special responsibility for helping to spread this recovery beyond their own frontiers. We must be in earnest in our fight to resist and to reduce protectionism. World trade must be revived through open markets. Here too, given the crucial importance of the dollar exchange rate and so of interest rates, the United States has a unique part to play.
50.	We have been disappointed that the resources available to the IDA have not been increased as we hoped. This makes it all the more important to undertake a special effort to help the poorest countries, above all in Africa. We cannot ignore the special conditions that have afflicted much of Africa or the Secretary-general’s plea for support. Special measures are needed for special conditions.
51.	The truth is that there are no instant solutions. The need is for common determination to work for solid, often unspectacular, progress on all fronts. Solutions to the economic problems I have described need to be rooted firmly in political reality if they are to endure. I am encouraged by the fact that Governments have been willing to identify practical steps that they can and will take together. That is the main reason why prospects for the world economy are better now than they were a year or two ago.
52.	The approach that is working in the economic field applies equally to political relations between States. Here too, there is a need for practical measures to solve real problems. Nowhere is that need more urgent than in East West relations—not because of what is happening but because of what is not happening, because in this area there has not been anything like the same meeting of minds over the way forward as there has been on economic questions. In his report the Secretary General speaks of "great Power tension accentuated by a lack of progress in disarmament and arms limitation". I share his analysis. That is why we need to make a fresh start. President Reagan this week put forward a series of proposals that could lead us in that direction. We must all reject the temptation to identify difficulties with that approach and instead identify the ideas with which we can agree.
53.	In the past year, Mr. Gromyko and I have met on no less than four occasions. On each of those occasions, I have been struck not so much by the differences between us—although these are real and substantial—as by the similarity of what we say are the basic aims of our peoples. This similarity of underlying approach is reflected in the desire of both sides to break the spiral of the arms race, in our shared aim of better relations between East and West, and often in apparently similar words and phrases. I found myself in complete agreement with the statement of the high level Economic Conference of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, held in Moscow in June,that "no world problems—and that includes the historic dispute between socialism and capitalism—can be solved by force of arms". So what separates us is not so much the words we use as the meaning we attach to them. Our task must be to bridge that gap, to reconcile, in a spirit of mutual understanding, our differing purposes with our underlying interest in our common safety and security.
54.	Each side has proclaimed its desire for a more comprehensive dialogue. I refuse to believe that that cannot be achieved. I believe we can find a common way of resolving such issues of supreme importance to us all. In that same speech in Missouri, Churchill called for greater mutual confidence. He said:
"There is deep sympathy and goodwill in Britain—and I doubt not here also—towards the peoples of all the Russias and a resolve to persevere through many differences and rebuffs in establishing lasting friendships ..."
Forty years later that remains our hope.
55.	During 1984 the West has made far-reaching but practical proposals in every arms control negotiation. At Stockholm we have submitted specific measures which would enhance confidence and security throughout Europe. At Vienna we have made I major new proposal to resolve the long-standing disagreement over the level of Eastern forces. At Geneva, Britain has taken two initiatives on verification of a chemical weapons ban, while the United States has submitted a new draft treaty.
56.	Against that background I deeply regret the Soviet suspension of the nuclear arms talks. Of all subjects on the East West agenda, the control and reduction of nuclear weapons is by common consent the most important. And yet it is the one aspect of arms control which is not at present the subject of negotiation. The United States has offered to resume these talks, anywhere, at any time, without preconditions. The whole world would applaud a positive Soviet response.
57.	So, too, on the question of arms control in outer space. On 29 June, the Soviet Government proposed that talks should begin in Vienna in September. It asked for a prompt response. The Americans gave it, constructively and seriously. But so far the Russians seem to have been unable to take "yes" for an answer. Dialogue cannot be a one-way process—still less, negotiations. No one can converse with an empty chair. I hope the Soviet Union will find the political will to take its place at the table. When it does, it will find the West ready and willing to talk.
58.	The negotiations on the future of Hong Kong which the British and Chinese Governments have been conducting since 1982 are an excellent illustration of the way in which difficult issues may be resolved. Earlier today, in Beijing, the two Governments initialled a draft; agreement on the future of Hong Kong. It is a triumph of good sense. It shows how, in the search for solutions to international problems, agreement is only possible with courage, imagination and political will on all sides. Chairman Deng Xiaoping's idea of "one country, two systems" is an example of such a positive approach. The people of Hong Kong will wish to judge for themselves the outcome of these negotiations. But already I am confident that we have achieved a historic agreement.
59.	Britain also has a special relationship with, and a close interest in, the island of Cyprus. I hope that there, too, we may see early progress in the continuing search for a solution. The Secretary General’s current efforts to bring about a resumption of the intercommunal talks must not be allowed to fail. Only thus will a settlement of the wider problem be possible. That is why the British Government supports the Secretary General in his task. We stand ready to do all we can to assist him.
60.	I turn now to three troubled regions of the world where failure to resolve the disputes which divide the parties could have grave consequences.
61.	In the Middle East, it is deeply disappointing that once again this year we are no nearer a solution of the Arab Israel dispute, but with the arrival of a new Israeli Government there is now an opportunity to turn a new page. The outlines of a just settlement have been clear for many years. It must reconcile Israel's right to exist within secure and recognized borders and the Palestinians' right to self-determination. But plans or statements of principle from the international community are in themselves of limited value unless the parties to the dispute have the political courage to take the bold steps necessary for peace.
62.	Such steps are possible now without anyone's security being endangered. The new Israeli Government could halt the policy of installing illegal settlements in occupied territory. The Arab countries and the Palestinians could formulate a realistic and a common negotiating stand before it is too late. The United States has a unique position of influence with parties on both sides of the dispute. Its role is indispensable. President Reagan reaffirmed on Monday his commitment to his country's search for a just and lasting peace. I very much welcome that. As the President of the Council of Ministers of the European Community made clear yesterday fusing], we and our European partners stand ready to help and to use our influence to work for the peace which has eluded us all so long.
63.	In Lebanon, the efforts of the Lebanese Government to bring peace to that country which has suffered so long deserve the support of all of us. The 10 member countries of the European Community have called consistently for the early withdrawal, in agreement with the Lebanese Government, of all foreign forces. The presidency statement yesterday reiterated that plea. In our view, national reconciliation and withdrawal of those forces should go ahead together. UNIFIL has continued to perform a useful role in southern Lebanon, a role which—as the Secretary General said in April—could with advantage be enlarged.
64.	In the Gulf, we shall continue to support any initiatives which offer hope of an end to the long and tragic conflict between Iran and Iraq. We welcomed the decision to send a United Nations team to investigate allegations that chemical weapons had been used. The British Government condemns unequivocally the use of chemical weapons by anyone. We are encouraged that both sides continue to support the Secretary General’s appeal to avoid attacks on civilian centres of population. We hope that they will take further steps to limit the scope of the conflict and that this will prepare the way for an honourable settlement of the dispute.
65.	Southern Africa is another area where failure to make progress towards solving disputes could have consequences far beyond the region itself. The events of the past few weeks have amply demonstrated the wider dangers of the present policies of the South African Government. They underline the urgent need for real progress towards a system of government supported by all South Africans. This can be achieved only by dialogue within South Africa and between South Africa and the world at large.
66.	Even so, there has been some progress towards reducing tension in the region. In particular, I welcome the wide-ranging contacts between Mozambique and South Africa following the Agreement on Nonaggression and Good Neighbourliness, signed at Nkomati on 16 March 1984. We have also welcomed the agreement between Angola and South Africa, reached at Lusaka on 16 February 1984, on the withdrawal of South African forces from southern Angola. We shall continue to work for further steps towards an early settlement of the Namibian question.
67.	In Central America, too, there is a need for concerted action if we are to check the trend towards instability and foster social and political development. The roots of the conflict and political turmoil racking the region are indigenous, but the problems have been exploited and exacerbated by those who care little for regional stability and democratic evolution, preferring to pursue their own political objectives.
68.	That is why we were encouraged by the democratic elections in El Salvador this year and why we like our partners in the European Community strongly support the Contadora initiative. I much look forward to the meeting at San Jose next weekend between the Foreign Ministers of the 10 member countries of the Community and Spain and Portugal, and of the Central American and Contadora countries. This will be an important opportunity for us to underline our active interest in promoting and encouraging peace. Our purpose is to make a practical contribution to democracy and development in the region.
69.	I must now turn to the relationship between my country and Argentina, whose newly elected President addressed the Assembly on Monday [5th meeting]. Let me stress again that we welcome wholeheartedly Argentina's return to democratic government. We are ready, from that new basis, to try to work towards more normal relations between us after the tragic events of two years ago. We firmly believe that this would be in the interests of Britain, of Argentina, of all our friends in Latin America and of the Falkland Islanders themselves.
70.	Of course Britain and Argentina have different—and deeply held—positions on the question of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. No one should forget that we were negotiating on that very subject in 1982 when Argentina launched its brutal invasion of the islands. The present Argentine Government was not responsible for that disastrous action, but its consequences cannot just be brushed aside.
71.	As I have said, we attach great importance to improving our relations with Argentina, and we have made a genuine and sustained effort to reach agreement with the Argentine Government on a basis for direct talks. It was clear that, if those talks were not to founder at the outset on the very issue that divides us, the question of sovereignty could not be addressed. We therefore needed to find a way of meeting the legitimate requirements of both sides. With the help of the Swiss and Brazilian Governments as protecting Powers and after a great deal of detailed work, a clear and satisfactory basis for talks was achieved and agreed by all.
72.	When the talks began at Berne in July, Argentina took a position at variance with this agreed basis. Their representatives insisted that no progress could be made towards normalization without the certainty that a mechanism would be established to permit negotiations over sovereignty. This overturned the very basis on which talks between us had been agreed. The talks therefore came to an end. This was an important opportunity missed. I think that many people will have been disappointed, as I was, that President Alfonsin, in his speech to the Assembly two days ago, presented the same position once again explicitly as a precondition of any talks between us.
73.	Let me also underline that there is a further fundamental principle involved in this dispute which cannot be overlooked—the principle of self-determination. It is a principle which is jealously guarded by the people of Great Britain and, indeed, by every Member of the United Nations. The Falkland Islanders, like any other people, have the right to self-determination. We had hoped that the new Argentine Government, with its attachment to democracy and human rights, would be ready to recognize this fundamental human right of the Falkland Islanders.
74.	Those who call on us to negotiate on the sovereignty of the islands should think what exactly it is that they are asking us to do. For Argentina, such negotiations could only have one outcome: the transfer of sovereignty over the islands irrespective of the wishes of the Falkland Islanders. To ask us to do that is to ask us to overturn the principle of self-determination enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.
75.	We shall continue with the economic and constitutional development of the Falkland Islands. We shall maintain the minimum level of forces required to defend the islands. Let me emphasize those words, "defend the islands". Our military dispositions are designed solely for that purpose.
76.	We have sought ways of improving relations with Argentina by tackling practical issues where real progress is possible to the benefit of both sides. It is still my profound belief that, in the difficult circumstances I have described, the only way forward is to find a way of taking such practical steps as will enable confidence to be re-established between our two peoples.
77.	The right of peoples to choose their own Government is also at issue in Afghanistan and Cambodia. The outside world has little idea of the suffering which the Afghan people endure. We cannot ignore the harsh realities of the problem, which my Irish colleague, Mr. Barry, has already described [6th meeting]. We give our full support to the efforts of the Secretary General, which are seeking to ensure that the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and successive United Nations resolutions shall be applied to restore an independent and nonaligned Afghanistan. This cannot happen until Soviet forces are withdrawn.
78.	In Cambodia, the Vietnamese occupying force remains, despite the resolutions passed by an overwhelming majority in recent years calling for a complete withdrawal. The British Government continues to support the Cambodian people's right to determine their own destiny, free from outside interference.
79.	The continued division of the Korean peninsula has been a matter of concern much longer than the occupation of Afghanistan and of Cambodia. My visit to Panmunjom earlier this year reminded me of this sad fact. The British Government remains convinced that the suggestions put forward by the Republic of Korea for direct talks between the two sides represent the best prospect for a peaceful solution.
80.	There is one final region of the world I should mention, although it is not one much visited by Foreign Ministers. This year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty/ The Treaty is a remarkable example of political foresight. It provides an excellent model of practical cooperation achieved through international agreement. The fact that a further four States have acceded to the Treaty in this anniversary year shows its continuing value. The British Government would not wish to see any development that would undermine this important Treaty.
81.	We discuss many global and regional political issues in this Hall. But when we do so it is easy to forget the fundamental reality of the freedom and wellbeing of the individual. The architects of the Charter of the United Nations were quite clear about this. They set down, as a major purpose of the Organization, to achieve cooperation "in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion". The gulf between this intention and the gross abuses of human rights which still occur in so many parts of the world appals me. These abuses are sometimes carried out in the name of political, social or religious ideologies, and indeed by some of the leading signatories of the Helsinki Final Act/ Sometimes such abuses result from conditions of anarchy and chaos. My Government deplores them all, wherever they occur and whatever the reason with which their perpetrators may attempt to justify them.
82.	A particularly gross form of abuse of the most fundamental human rights of all—the rights to life and liberty—is terrorism. The horrifying events in Beirut last week served as a grim reminder of this growing evil. Terrorist acts may often be the work of small groups of crazed fanatics. But more and more they have had the material backing of a few misguided Governments. As the Secretary General’s report [A139/1] makes clear, there has been a steady increase in politically motivated violence in all its baleful forms. Few areas of the world have been spared. As so often, it is innocent men and women who pay the price for this assault on the basic values of civilized society. Indiscriminate murder for the furtherance of political ends is wholly unacceptable. We must resist it with every legitimate means available to the international community.
83.	The growing involvement in terrorism by Governments and their representatives abroad has brought to light another urgent problem: the abuse of diplomatic immunity. This is something which must deeply concern us all. Many representatives know that my Government is reviewing the working of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. We are seeking ways to tighten control of unacceptable activities by members of diplomatic missions. The Convention has, generally speaking, performed useful service for over 20 years. Its underlying principles have for centuries stood the test of application between sovereign States of widely differing character. What is lacking is determination on the part of signatory States to apply rigorously enough the safeguards and sanctions it contains. The Declaration on International Terrorism, issued at the London Economic Summit, held from 7 to 9 June 1984 and the measures agreed by the European Community a6 Dublin earlier this month are evidence of how, given the political will, States can swiftly take practical action to deal with international problems.
84.	Let me in conclusion return to the theme with which I began. In speaking today of all the global and regional problems which confront us, I have many times referred to the need for realistic solutions and for a practical approach. I do so out of profound personal conviction, a conviction that is continually reinforced by my experience in political life in my own country and in international affairs. Put simply, it is this. None of the disputes and disagreements before us is of its essence insoluble. In many cases, we can already envisage the outline of a solution. In almost every case, what is needed, and what is missing, is political will—above all, the political will to work for practical agreement, to have the courage, imagination and dogged determination to negotiate in a rational and realistic fashion. Often, perhaps in most cases, that will mean the pursuit of limited, but attainable, objectives. Such an approach is a gradual one, demanding the steady creation of confidence between the parties. It will imply the breaking down of issues into manageable proportions, and it will require a spirit of understanding which takes account of the political and economic realities on both sides of the argument.
85.	Such an approach puts a discount on ringing declarations of intent and on uncompromising statements of minimum objectives. But it places a premium on steady, perhaps unspectacular, negotiation, often in private, and when it pays dividends, it pays handsomely. I said earlier that the British and Chinese Governments had initialled a historic agreement on the future of Hong Kong. But it is more than that. The agreement itself and, perhaps even more, the process by which it was achieved are powerful symbols of the way in which seemingly intractable problems can indeed be susceptible to treatment. And that, Mr. President, is the prescription which I end by offering you this afternoon.