Guinea, 1969

170. May I, first of all, on behalf of the delegation of the

Republic of Guinea, pay a tribute to the memory of our

late President, Mr. Emilio Arenales, of Guatemala, whose

great personality made its mark on the twenty-third session

of the United Nations General Assembly. We wish to

express our sincere condolences to his country, his family

and his friends.

171. And to you, Madam President, over and above the

traditional congratulations offered by all delegations in

such circumstances to a newly elected President, I should

like to say how happy my delegation and my country, the

Republic of Guinea, are at her distinguished election to

preside over the twenty-fourth session of the General Assembly.

172. The election for the second time of a worthy child of

Africa to the presidency of this Assembly is a great new

source of hope for all who have struggled and continue to

struggle for the ideals of freedom, peace and social progress.

It is also a definite encouragement to those who have

unceasingly sacrificed themselves for the total emancipation

and full development of peoples so that they may assume

full responsibility for their own destinies and thus be able

to participate satisfactorily and effectively in bringing

about a better world.

173. Above all, the election of our President for this

twenty-fourth session of the General Assembly is something

more than a tribute justly paid to the Republic of Liberia

and its worthy President and great African leader, Mr. William

V.S. Tubman, who is loved and respected in the

Republic of Guinea; it is a personal tribute to our President

and a recognition of her country’s praiseworthy efforts, in

this Organization and elsewhere, to further human rights,

the emancipation of women and all measures to promote a

better social world and a world of universal peace. Her

election is a firm proof of Africa’s involvement and of its

contribution to the task of safeguarding international peace

and security.

174. The delegation of the Republic of Guinea is firmly

convinced that the personal qualities of our President,

which have been evidenced on numerous occasions in the

United Nations and elsewhere, will set the tone for our

discussions and impart a character to this Assembly which

will be in accord with the noble principles of the Charter to

which we have all subscribed, resulting in satisfactory

solutions to the serious problems which we are called upon

to consider during this session.

175. We should also like to take advantage of this

opportunity to offer our encouragement and acknowledgement

to the Secretary-General, U Thant, for the praise-worthy

work he does in the service of peace.

176. The delegations which have spoken before me have

all raised the important problems of peace, disarmament,

security, development and international co-operation.

177. In my delegation’s opinion, the events which trouble

our continent and the persistence of foreign domination

will cause the twenty-fourth session of the General Assembly,

even more than the sixteenth (known as “Africa Year“), to be

marked again by the “African problem”, i.e.

the problem of the effective exercise of national sovereignty

by Africans for the benefit of their peoples and to

the exclusion of all foreign interference.

178. The General Assembly has devoted its most important

discussions at its last ten sessions to the problems

arising in different contexts and in varied forms in

connexion with the political, economic, social and cultural

decolonization of Africa. The problem of decolonization

has been discussed eloquently in United Nations bodies for

ten years, unhappily without a practical solution having yet

been found. On the contrary, the hopes born of declarations

we have all made together and of resolutions we have

all adopted together have gradually given way to frustration

and tension which are a permanent threat to international

peace and security.

179. We loudly proclaim that the perpetuation of colonialism

in Africa at the close of this decade is but another

aspect of the political supremacy pursued by the imperialist

Powers at the expense of the valiant peoples of Africa and

in contempt of the fundamental principles on which our

Organization is based. Decolonization is therefore the key

problem above all others for the maintenance of international

peace and security and thus for the achievement of

the main objectives of the Charter of the United Nations.

180. Progressive forces throughout the world know that

imperialism seeks at any price to keep the whole of

southern Africa under its domination, in order to exploit its

riches for its own purposes and to use it as a centre from

which to crush national liberation movements and interfere

in the internal affairs of the independent States of Africa

through provocation and threats, corruption and blackmail.

181. Could the infamous Ian Smith, alone and unaided,

after unilaterally and with impunity proclaiming independence

in November 1965, have gone on to submit the

so-called draft constitution to a bogus referendum with a

view to making a new proclamation, the proclamation of a

Republic? It is a universally recognized fact that the

Rhodesia of Ian Smith, like the Portugal of the infamous

Salazar or the Republic of South Africa of the criminal

Balthazar Vorster, is unconditionally supported by the

United Kingdom and its NATO allies. The shilly-shallying

of the United Kingdom, as the administering Power with

full responsibility, its systematic refusal to use force and its

pious recommendation of sanctions are all part of the

Western policy of making southern Africa a bastion of

fascist minorities and white supremacy in Africa. That

alone explains the rapprochement encouraged between the

régimes of Vorster and Ian Smith. Has not the United

Kingdom recently proved its sacred colonial principles and

its colonial mission are still in full force by its dramatic

intervention to repress a so-called rebellion in the tiny

island of Anguilla and to safeguard what it calls the rule of

law?

182. It is most regrettable that the United Kingdom,

confronted by the new situation in Rhodesia, is content to

reiterate its verbal condemnation of the Salisbury régime

and to profess its unshakable faith in the effectiveness of

harmless economic sanctions. Experience has shown that

only the use of force can bring the Ian Smith clique to

reason. Therefore, if the United Kingdom wishes to

shoulder its responsibilities, it can repeat its Anguilla

exploit and bring about a return to legality and the rule of

law in Rhodesia.

183. Southern Africa remains today the key area in the

struggle for the freedom of our still subjugated peoples. In

Namibia, the Portuguese colonies, South Africa and rebel

Rhodesia, guerrilla movements are engaged against the

Vorster-Smith-Caetano axis, whose offensives, despite the

support of NATO and their de facto allies, can never

overcome the immeasurable and invincible force of the

masses of the people. We know from experience — the case

of Viet-Nam is now irrefutable proof — that the principle of

self-determination of peoples has been an irresistible force

throughout history.

184. Therefore, if the Pretoria régime continues to turn a

deaf ear to the decisions of this Organization, which in

resolution 2145 (XXI) revoked that regime’s Mandate over

Namibia, we should no longer continue this dialogue with

the deaf in which it seeks to hold us so as to distract us

from our main objective, the independence of Namibia. We

should no longer bother with the arguments of Mr. Vorster,

who must be made to see that an imperative injunction is

addressed to him in paragraph 5 of Security Council

resolution 269 (1969). On 4 October 1969, South Africa

should actually be in an illegal position with respect to

international law and the United Nations. This situation,

which my delegation would call the point of no return,

must logically lead us to transfer the sovereignty of

Namibia to its people and to them alone. The responsibility

for Namibian affairs should then be entrusted to a

government in exile recognized by the Organization of

African Unity and by the United Nations, a government

that should receive all the moral and material assistance of

the States members of those two organizations and of all

progressive peoples of the world.

185. We would thus be striking South Africa at its most

vulnerable point, the “Achilles heel” of Namibia. My

country, which has complete faith in the action of peoples

as the driving force of history, is in no doubt that it is only

in this way that the de facto authorities of Pretoria would

be made to realize their weakness and that of their unholy

allies in the face of an entire people in arms.

186. With these suggestions, my delegation invites the

General Assembly to redefine its entire strategy vis-a-vis the

apartheid system, that scourge which must be resolutely

eradicated from the African continent — a continent which

aspires to become free and responsible and fully master of

its own destiny.

187. In the Guinean delegation’s view, Portuguese colonialism

and the existence of the fascist axis of Salisbury and

Pretoria form a single problem, namely, that of the

anti-imperialist struggle for the true and effective independence

of the peoples of southern Africa.

188. It is unanimously recognized that Portugal, economically

under-developed and politically decadent, could

not wage a fight on several fronts or commit a long series of

markedly criminal acts incompatible with the obligations of

a State Member of the United Nations without the full

support of the Western Powers. The seriousness of the

problem lies precisely in the fact that colonialism has

survived in Africa because of the imposition of armed force

by Western Powers grouped together in the militarist North

Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on peoples whose

only crime has been the desire to regain their usurped

independence and their dignity.

189. That is why, strengthened by the military, political

and economic aid of those Powers and protected by their

abuse of the veto in the Security Council, Portugal refuses

to hold any dialogue with the nationalist forces with a view

to reaching a negotiated solution for the liberation of those

territories. Moreover, Portugal regularly engages in acts of

provocation against independent African States which it

claims to be its neighbours.

190. Thus, on 27 August 1969, the Republic of Guinea

was again the victim of foul, ignominious and criminal

aggression by Portuguese colonialism. A Guinean transport

vessel carrying 33 passengers was surrounded in national

territorial waters by six Portuguese military launches armed

with heavy machine guns and other automatic weapons.

The aggressors opened fire on the boat, killing one man

outright and seriously injuring three other persons. Only

eight passengers managed to escape and swim to the coast

under a hail of bullets and grenades. After committing this

crime, the Portuguese aggressors seized the Guinean launch

and the twenty-one surviving passengers, whom they took

with them to an unknown destination. The lives of the

prisoners are in danger because the Portuguese have a

mindless hatred for the people of the progressive countries

of Africa.

191. The Government of the Republic of Guinea wishes to

protest most emphatically at this foul crime of international

imperialism and appeals to the United Nations and to

the conscience of the world for all possible measures to be

taken to end the criminal activities of the detested Lisbon

regime.

192. You will also recall that two years ago one of our

AN14 aircraft, having strayed slightly from its course on

the way to Boké, a town in the administrative district of

the same name in the Republic of Guinea and close to the

frontier with so-called Portuguese Guinea, landed in that

territory. Far from receiving the assistance due to aircraft in

such circumstances, it was simply held with all its crew,

who have remained prisoners to this day.

193. All our protests have been in vain and Portugal

continues to pursue its criminal activities with impunity

throughout black Africa, clearly with NATO’s blessing.

194. Portugal, more than any other State, is aware of the

doom to which it is heading, because it knows better than

any other State that it is bogged down in a war that will

inevitably consign it to the scrap-heap of history. That is

why, with the madness of a cornered beast, it has adopted

the ultimate tactics used as a last resort by those who are

doomed to failure and desperate scorched earth tactics in

the combat areas and the physical elimination of those who

are fighting for independence and the freedom of the

oppressed peoples.

195. The assassination of Mr. Eduardo Mondlane in January

1969 and all the other attempted assassinations of

African leaders are among the ignominious acts that will

loom large in the list of colonialist crimes. In condemning

this shameful act, the Republic of Guinea wishes to pay a

well-deserved tribute to this valiant African hero fallen on

the field of battle for the honour of the African homeland.

196. People die, peoples and their sacred causes live for

ever. We have an unshakable faith in the irreversible and

indestructible nature of the liberation movement and in the

inevitable victory of progressive forces over colonialism.

197. The peoples who love peace and liberty have understood

only too well the odious manoeuvres carried out by

the imperialist and neo-colonialist forces against the effective

independence of the peoples of Africa, flouting the

sacred principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

They have learnt that under the cover of sanctimonious

declarations of intent and appeals to so-called reason, these

forces of evil are engaging in acts which the conscience of

mankind cannot tolerate.

198. That is why the armed struggle, legitimately sanctioned

by the United Nations, is being intensified in the

territories still under foreign domination and why the

African nationalists are daily winning greater and greater

victories in Zimbabwe, Guinea (Bissau), Namibia, Angola

and Mozambique. From this rostrum, we call on all the

liberation movements to unite in a common front and to

set themselves the single objective of the prompt liberation

of their territories that are still under foreign domination.

199. To the independent African States we also say that it

is high time to make an effective contribution to the

struggle of the national liberation movements, and in so

doing, to strengthen the national independence of all

African States. Comrade Ahmed Sekou Touré, President of

the Republic of Guinea, a great fighter for the cause of

African independence, has said on this matter:

“So long as colonialism and its unspeakable crimes have

not disappeared from African life once and for all and so

long as one geographical part of our continent or a

fraction of its population languishes beneath the boots of

imperialism, can any African State or any African people

believe itself to be entirely worthy and rehabilitated on

the international scene?”

200. What is required of the independent African States is

to respect the solemn commitments undertaken at the time

of the establishment of the Organization of African Unity

in May 1963 to form a united front against the imperialist

and colonialist coalition and drive the foreign usurper from

our continent. On the way that commitment is respected

and on the kind of assistance offered to the liberation

movements by all peoples who cherish peace and freedom

will depend the elimination of colonialism and neocolonialism

in the territories that are still under Portuguese

domination, in Rhodesia, in Namibia, in Azania as well as in

the other African States that are still dependent.

201. Wherever colonialism and imperialism cannot act

openly, they adopt the policy of division, of tribalism, and

employ stateless and ambitious men to create instability in

certain spheres and encourage secession so that they may be

better able to divide the African peoples who only want

their freedom and thus hold them in subjection for a longer

time.

202. A problem has been raised here which is essentially

an African one, namely, the secession of eastern Nigeria, to

which the most fantastic interpretations have been given.

Some have even said that the Nigerian problem, in its

present stage, represents a shirking by the United Nations

of its fundamental responsibilities. This ill-orchestrated

imperialist propaganda cannot prevent international public

opinion from realizing the real cause of the Nigerian

problem. For it must be said that the secession in Nigeria

can be explained essentially by the existence of strategic

raw materials such as petroleum in that part of the

federation which the imperialist Powers are seeking to

remove from the control of the Federal Government. In the

opinion of the Republic of Guinea, the Nigerian problem is

and remains an essentially African political problem. We

appeal to all peace-loving people who cherish justice and

who wish to safeguard the territorial integrity of the

Federal Republic of Nigeria to abide by the resolution

adopted at the fifth session of the Conference of Heads of

State and Government of the Organization of African Unity

at Algiers from 13 to 16 September 1968, and confirmed at

Addis Ababa in September 1969. Only in this way could

the situation in Nigeria be regularized and other civil wars

in Africa avoided.

203. To the continued international tension brought

about by colonialism has been added the political instability

created and maintained in Africa by the Powers

seeking spheres of political, economic, military and cultural

influence. Thus the hopes aroused by the achievement of

independence by the majority of African States at the

beginning of this decade, and in particular the hope that the

countries still dependent would achieve national sovereignty

within a short time, have been severely disappointed

by the grave events which have characterized the African

political scene during this period.

204. Everywhere else in the world, the effect of the great

Powers’ supremacy policy is to create a climate of growing

insecurity in the small countries. The third world has more

than ever become the scene of coups d’état and direct or

indirect aggression. In other words, another and more

brutal and cynical form of domination of peoples is added

to the existing colonialism — the violation of the sovereignty

of the independent States of Africa, Asia and Latin

America in contempt of all international rules and practice.

Unscrupulous self-interest has won out over the sovereign

rights of peoples, those principles which it is the sacred

function of the Charter of the United Nations to safeguard.

205. The United States peace offensive to end the war of

aggression in Viet-Nam is likely to remain illusory until

Washington resolves to accept the perfectly reasonable

conditions of the National Liberation Front. In this

connexion, my delegation cannot repeat too often what it

has always said in this Assembly: nothing could do the

United States Government more honour than to find a

speedy and favourable solution through the Paris talks. The

world which loves peace and social justice believes in these

negotiations and cherishes the hope that the Nixon Government

will take advantage of this opportunity. We sincerely

encourage the United States Government to pursue its

efforts, not by adopting half measures but by tackling

dynamically the basic problem, which is to enable the

Viet-Namese people to solve the problems of their own

future in complete freedom, without any foreign presence

or interference.

206. The constitution of the provisional government of

the National Liberation Front, which was greeted by a most

encouraging message from the Government and people of

the Republic of Guinea, should be an additional valid

reason why Washington should restore a lasting peace in

this part of the world, which has been in turmoil for nearly

a quarter of a century.

207. It should be remembered that, in addition to

Viet-Nam, the Middle East is also suffering at the hands of

an imperialism which, in order to perpetuate its domination

over the Arab world, has been guilty of the greatest and

most shameless injustice ever done to a people — the brutal

expropriation of its native land. This expropriation, which

was aggravated by the aggression of 5 June 1967 against the

Arab peoples, illustrates the expansionist doctrine. But we

should not forget the lessons of history. It was the

inordinate greed of Hitler’s Nazis that was their doom,

raising the conscience of mankind in revolt against them.

208. Even if the four great Powers were suddenly to

realize their prime responsibility in the Israel-Arab conflict,

it goes without saying that any solution to this burning

problem which did not first require the unconditional

withdrawal of Israel’s troops from the occupied Arab

territories would be an “imposed solution”, imposed both

on the Palestinian people and on the Arab States. There is

no need to stress that any new compromise can only create

new conflicts which must inevitably be a threat to world peace.

209. It is hard to see how these hotbeds of war can be

extinguished if the States which have taken upon themselves

the role of laying down the rules of international

conduct do not give up the arms race and the use of the

military bases which they maintain throughout the world.

Neither the signature of the Moscow Treaty banning

nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and

under water nor that of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation

of Nuclear Weapons [resolution 2373 (XXII)] is any

guarantee that the Western nuclear Powers are about to

renounce the manufacture and use of atomic weapons. The

devastating development of antiballistic missiles and other

ultimate weapons is at any rate far from proving otherwise.

210. It is for this reason essential that the international

community should realize the need to rid itself of the

permanent danger created by military bases established in

the middle of the small Powers. Those bases, need it be

said, serve as a means of political and economic pressure

from which the small Powers cannot free themselves in that

the subsidies paid in compensation contribute neither

directly nor indirectly to their development but only serve

the interests of a feudal and neo-colonialist oligarchy. Only

revolutionary regimes, jealous of the freedom and dignity

of their peoples, are able to defend them against the greed

of the colonialist Powers. If, therefore, as we affirm, the

world sincerely aspires to peace, it is vital to extinguish the

hotbeds of war and aggression in Viet-Nam, the Middle

East, Africa and Latin America.

211. It has, moreover, been established — the experience of

military coups d’état has proved it — that the political

instability created and maintained in Africa, Asia and Latin

America to block the revolutionary forces damages even the

interests of the imperialists themselves because of the

divided and competing allegiances in those countries.

212. But imperialism sometimes goes much further.

Having been unable to establish a puppet regime or to

interfere in the State’s internal affairs, this enemy of the

freedom of peoples has attempted to deny any international

status to the most highly populated State in the

world, the People’s Republic of China, a victim of blind

ostracism on the part of international imperialism. But all

these delaying tactics cannot isolate the People’s Republic

of China, whose influence continues to grow throughout

the world. The Republic of Guinea for its part, true to its

staunchly anti-colonialist policy and always in favour of

greater justice, will continue to strive for the restoration in

the United Nations of the lawful and natural rights of the

People’s Republic of China, that great and peace-loving

State whose honest and effective fraternal co-operation

with all States which cherish peace and social justice is

beyond question. The delegation of the Republic of Guinea

will once more urge the General Assembly to restore the

lawful rights of the People’s Republic of China which have

for so long been treated with contempt.

213. It is in the same spirit that the Republic of Guinea

will associate itself with those countries which traditionally

call for the reunification of Korea. There can be no doubt

that the champions of division among peoples — a basic

principle of colonialism and imperialism - are trying to

preserve their interests in South Korea for ever. In this

connexion, the United Nations forces in Korea, far from

fulfilling the mission entrusted to them, have served for

more than twenty years to encourage, or at least to

perpetuate, this division of a people who have everything in

common and who, but for the pernicious activities of the

forces of division, would have regained their national unity.

The People’s Democratic Republic of Korea, in its noble

task of restoring the values of the Korean people as a

whole, will bring its heroic struggle for national reconstruction

to a successful conclusion. In Viet-Nam and Korea, as

elsewhere, we know that imperialism will never be strong or

powerful enough to resist the invincible will of peoples on

the march.

214. In the Guinean delegation’s view, those are the

essential political factors which are responsible for the

international climate of insecurity, oppression and constant

threat to world peace. As long as those forces continue to

act against the freedom, the independence and the interests

of the peoples of the third world, it will be impossible to

remove another source of conflict which is closely linked to

the first, namely, the ever widening gap between rich and

poor nations.

215. Is it therefore possible to talk of peace and international

security without speaking of development, a harmonious

development, a just and equitable distribution of

wealth or, in a word, a balance between wealth and the

poverty which remains the lot of some — and always the

same — people, while others continue daily to become

richer? There has been manifest disappointment on this

score in connexion with the recent United Nations Development

Decade.

216. In accordance with the Final Act of the Geneva

Conference the necessary co-operation between the

industrialized and developing countries has a prominent

place, under the heading of international economic co-operation,

on the agenda of the twenty-fourth session. You

will remember that the fundamental problem of reform of

the outworn and shameful structures of the entire world

economy in favour of an honest and beneficial co-operation

between “have” and “have-not” countries was raised at

Geneva in 1964.

217. Five years after signature of the Final Act of the

Geneva Conference and four years after the start of

activities of UNCTAD’s executive machinery — the Trade

and Development Board — the gap between industrialized

and developing countries continues to widen; the stabilization

and improvement of prices, the removal of barriers to

world trade expansion, the adoption of a generalized

system of non-reciprocal and non-discriminatory preferences

for all developing countries, the promotion of

industrialization and the determination of freight rates, the

establishment of a multilateral payments system and

effective assistance to the developing countries remain as

always the basic and legitimate concern of the countries of

the third world.

218. But from a factual and absolute standpoint, it can be

said that nothing positive has yet been accomplished by the

developed countries. Remember that history is not made by

intentions. What we want is to see these intentions

translated into concrete acts which will lead to the

disappearance of hunger and poverty.

219. The Republic of Guinea, true to its principles of

international co-operation founded on the sovereign interests

of States, believes that an under-developed economy

cannot develop if integrated with a developed economy,

since such integration robs it of its strength and is the very

cause of its under-development.

220. My delegation hereby reaffirms its agreement with

the Charter of Algiers concerning the economic rights of

the third world, and maintains that traditional formulae,

limited concessions and isolated measures are no longer

sufficient to enable countries to enjoy economic and social

well-being or to obtain the means to develop their resources

and lead their peoples to a life free from want and fear.

221. The seriousness of the problem requires the urgent

adoption of a global development strategy involving simultaneous

action by both the developed and the developing countries.

222. The representatives of the developing countries,

united by their common aspirations and by the identity of

their economic interests and determined to pursue together

their efforts towards economic and social development,

peace and prosperity, have reaffirmed in the Charter of

Algiers that their economic development depends essentially

upon themselves. It is therefore regrettable that they

should show so little inclination to progress beyond the

idea of national micro-economies and be so utterly lacking

in any clear understanding of the kind of national economy

without which there can be no change and no real economic development.

223. There are still a great many countries which, consciously

or unconsciously, continue as mere extensions of

the metropolitan country which suggests to them economic

development plans based on the needs of its own markets

and not on the interests of the peoples of the countries.

224. Economic development is imperative. Its final objective

is the well-being of the working masses and not the

protection of the interests of a group of individuals.

225. We in Guinea have created this understanding, this

economic development mentality. We have carried out

radical changes in the social and economic structures

inherited from the colonial system. We have worked out a

philosophy of economic development based essentially on

the realities of our situation and applicable broadly to the

natural region to which we belong. We have struck a

national coinage which is in circulation in an independent

monetary area. In only eight years of independence we have

brought all sectors of the national economy under State

control. That, of course, was not achieved without difficulty.

The interests of the working masses required that

bourgeois, bureaucratic and national capitalist reactionary

elements should be removed from all positions of direction,

decision and control.

226. On the basis of its own experience, the Republic of

Guinea feels that inter-African co-operation and the

reorganization of African trade are the essential conditions for

the rapid progress and economic independence of the

African continent. Extension of economic areas, exchange

of goods, services and technology and harmonization of

African development plans are alone capable of creating at

the continental level dynamic flows of reciprocal trade

spreading beyond the strictly economic framework.

227. Be that as it may, the countries of the southern

hemisphere, which have always known the division of their

peoples and the exploitation of their wealth, will not shrink

from the fight against under-development. This characteristic

inequalities of living standards are also the work of

those who regard them merely as storehouses of raw

materials and not as countries capable one day of equipping

themselves with the necessary structures for achieving their

economic independence.

228. The great Powers still have a heavy responsibility in

this respect. They should realize that international solidarity

and co-operation are not vain words but determining

factors for universal peace.

229. These are the general considerations which determine

the world political, economic and social climate.

230. For our part, the choice between the opposing

camps — that of progress, respect for sovereignty and the

right to independence of all peoples, and that of the forces

of reaction — is simple and inescapable. The delegation of

the Republic of Guinea accepts its full responsibilities and

stands resolutely at the side of those who work for peace

and the survival of mankind. Those are the inspiring

prospects which will decide the position and the votes of

our delegation at the twenty-fourth session of the General

Assembly.