Somalia, 1982

I wish to extend, on behalf of my delegation and on my own behalf,

warm congratulations to Mr. Hollai on his well-deserved election as

President of the thirty-seventh session of the General Assembly. His

accession to this high office is a tribute to his personal qualities

and wide knowledge and experience of international affairs. I assure

him of my delegation's co-operation in the months ahead. I should

also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Kittani on the

wisdom and competence he displayed in guiding the debates of the

thirty-sixth session, and to express our gratitude for his devoted

service to the work of the General Assembly. It is a pleasure for me

to pay a tribute also to the Secretary-General, whose first year in

office has been particularly difficult. He has faced the challenges

of his office with courage, realism and persistence. By his efforts

on behalf of world peace and the authority of the United Nations, Mr.

Perez de Cuellar has shown himself to be worthy of the great

responsibility upon his shoulders.

219. As the General Assembly takes stock once again of the world

situation, there can be little cause for satisfaction over the state

of international" affairs. Whether we consider the proliferation of

dangerous regional conflicts or the inability of the United Nations

to maintain peace and security through collective action, the outlook

is not encouraging.

220. In the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, southern Africa,

Afghanistan and South-East Asia and in the recent Falkland (Malvinas)

Islands dispute, the United Nations has not been able to fulfil its

most fundamental purposes of peace-making and peace-keeper. In many

cases when people suffering from injustice, oppression and foreign

domination turn to the United Nations for redress, basing their hopes

on the provisions of the

221. After nearly four decades of experience in using the Charter as

the legal standard governing inter-national relations, the wisdom and

validity of its principles remain incontestable. However, its wide,

global objectives continue to be subordinated to narrowly conceived

national interests. In our view, this is the cause of the current

breakdown in inter-national law and order. Unless Member States

address themselves seriously and sincerely to this dilemma, they

cannot hope to achieve workable solutions to

222. In the Middle East Israel's denial of Palestinian rights is

the driving force behind its lawless and barbarous devastation of

Lebanon. International anarchy is nowhere so rampant as in this area,

where Israel has shown that there are no limits to its con-tempt for

international law and its callous inhumanity. Not content with

denying Palestinian rights, the Israelis are seeking to exterminate

the Palestinians themselves. In pursuit of their final solution to

the problem they have launched a criminal aggression against a

sovereign State, and they have had no qualms about the destruction of

cities through saturation bombing and the killing and maiming of

thousands of civilians, including women and children, by the use of

vicious phosphorous and anti-personnel cluster bombs.

223. The recent massacres in the Shatila and Sabra camps in west

Beirut have confronted us with horrors similar to those of the

holocaust of the Second World War. Israel cannot escape

responsibility for aiding and abetting the perpetration of the

crimes against the defenceless civilians of those camp-rimes which

have been strongly condemned by the entire world community. Israel

has in the past claimed in inter-national forums that its actions

stem from a special religious and moral authority. Are we now asked

to believe that the wanton destruction of life and property in

Lebanon was carried out at the dictate of a just Creator, or that

tragedies of the past which have no bearing on the Middle East

justify Israel's expansionist greed and genocidal policies?

224. My Government hopes that the General Assembly will be

uncompromising in its condemnation of Israel for the carnage in

Lebanon and will also be vigilant in opposing any Israeli attempts at

imposing new faits accomplis with regard to Lebanese territory. It

must demand Israel's 'immediate, complete and unconditional

withdrawal from Lebanon.

225. The General Assembly must also keep inter-national public

opinion focused on Israel's arrogant annexations of Arab territories,

including the Holy City of Jerusalem. It must be reaffirmed that the

status of the city, which is sacred to Moslems and Christians as well

as to Jews, cannot be unilaterally determined. The increased level of

persecution in the West Bank and Gaza and the defiant escalation of

the illegal settlement policy must also continue to be strongly

condemned. .

226. The failure of the Security Council in the past to take

effective measures against Israel for its violations of international

law certainly encouraged the Israeli Government to believe that it

could flout any international convention, commit any act of

aggression or carry out any atrocity with impunity. It is more than

time for it to be disabused of this belief. Israel has undoubtedly

breached the peace of the Middle East and threatened world peace and

security. Its outright rejection of all proposals which could serve

as a basis for negotiations shows that it has turned its back on

peace and that it plans to continue with is expansionism at any cost.

In our view, if the Security Council is to maintain any credibility

and authority in world affairs it must be prepared to take

significant action, including the imposition of sanctions, in order

to check Israel's dangerous and irresponsible course.

227. The tragic conflict between Iraq and the Islamic Republic of

Iran is another unfortunate reflection of our troubled times. My

Government sincerely I hopes that the ongoing mediation efforts will

succeed in the difficult and sensitive task of bringing an end to

this conflict which has destabilized the Gulf area. Somalia adds its

voice to the appeals of other Member States for the immediate

cessation of hostilities and the start of negotiations which would

ensure a return to peace and amity in the region.

228. The problems of southern Africa have always involved the

fundamental principles of the Charter and over the years have

increasingly threatened regional and international peace and

security. These problems remain acute in spite of the fact that the

struggle against South Africa's racist and colonial policies is in

its final stages. .

229. Unfortunately, the Pretoria regime is encouraged by the

continued political, economic and military support of its main

trading partners to intensify its racist oppression in South Africa,

to remain illegally in Namibia and to attempt to dominate the

southern African region through military aggression, political

pressure and economic subversion. Clearly, the General Assembly must

reiterate its call for unremitting efforts by the world community to

eliminate apartheid and to enable the United Nations to carry out its

legal responsibility for leading Namibia to independence.

230. Within South Africa the racist policies of the apartheid

system are being applied with ever- increasing severity as the

liberation struggle gains in effectiveness and strength. The

legitimacy of that struggle cannot be over-emphasized. In the long

history of the uprising of peoples against tyrannical and colonial

forms of oppression, revolutionary wars have been fought for much

less pressing reasons than the degrading inhumanity of apartheid.

231. The liberation movements within and outside South Africa

deserve the strongest moral, material and political support for their

efforts to regain the human dignity and fundamental right of the

majority of the population. As for South Africa's ruling minority, it

should be ostracized and isolated until it is prepared to take steps

to establish a just society.

232. In the case of Namibia the salient factor is the illegality

of South Africa's presence in the Territory, a status determined by

the International Court of Justice and Security Council resolution

435 (1978), which remains the only valid basis for a settlement. It

is now four years since South Africa began its machinations aimed at

obstructing Namibia's independence. No longer can the international

community tolerate South Africa's bad faith, its oppressive

domination of the Namibian people and its brutal war against their

liberation movement under the leadership of SWAPO.

233. My Government sincerely hopes that the current optimism over the

prospect of a Namibian settlement is justified. However, in view of

South Africa's past performance we believe that the General Assembly

must not fail to remind the five Western States of their commitment

to independence for Namibia as speedily as possible. In our view,

there will be little progress on Namibia or on other southern African

issues unless South Africa is made to understand General

Assembly-Thirty-seventh Session-Plenary Meetings that it will

certainly face comprehensive economic sanctions if it continues its

intransigent, aggressive and inhuman policies.

234. The growing use of brute force as an instrument of foreign

policy is disturbingly evident in the Soviet Union's continued

occupation of Afghanistan, a small non-aligned State, and in its

attempt to crush the resistance of the proud and courageous Afghan

people. The same super-Power which invokes in the United Nations the

doctrine of the non-use of force in international relations is

responsible for the loss of thousands of innocent lives at the hands

of its invading forces, for the devastation of Afghanistan's economy

and for the creation of one of the world's largest refugee

populations.

235. The ruthless nature of this war is further illustrated by the

use of Afghanistan as a testing ground for forms of chemical warfare

long condemned as barbarous by the international community. The

General assembly must continue to keep the plight of Afghanistan

before the attention of the world and to stand firmly by its

resolutions and those of the Security Council which call for the

unconditional withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country.

236. The presence of foreign troops in Democratic Kampuchea is

another example of the subversion of national independence through

foreign domination. Here again military aggression and alien rule

have given rise to a tragic refugee situation and to chronic tension

and conflict. My Government hopes that the efforts of the members of

the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other States to ensure

the restoration of legitimacy and national independence in Democratic

Kampuchea will be successful and that the constructive proposals made

at the recent International Conference on Kampuchea will be fruitful.

A political settlement would undoubtedly have far-reaching effects on

the peace and stability of the whole South-East Asian region.

237. Since the adoption of General Assembly resolution 2832 (XXVI) on

the Indian Ocean, serious obstacles have been placed in the way of

implementing the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace

by Soviet military intervention in the affairs of the countries of

the region and in their local conflicts. Moreover, with the military

and naval forces of the Soviet Union firmly entrenched in bases

provided to it by certain regional States, there has been a steady

deterioration in the stability and security of the countries of the

region. These dangerous developments have set the stage for the

escalation of super-Power confrontation and military rivalry in the

Indian Ocean. It is, therefore, more important than ever for Member

States to reaffirm their commitment to the principles enshrined in

resolution 2832 (XXVI) and to the provisions of the Final Document of

the Meeting of the Littoral and Hinterland States of the Indian Ocean.

238. In supporting these principles and provisions my delegation

places particular emphasis on the dismantling of all foreign bases

and the withdrawal of all foreign forces, including surrogate troops,

from the regional and on the obligation of the regional States to

settle disputes with one another by peaceful means, on the basis of

the principles of the United Nations Charter.

239. The Horn of Africa, my own area, continues to be affected by

tension and conflict, not because of territorial or boundary

disputes, as Ethiopian propaganda would have the international

community believe, but because of the denial of the right to

self-determination by the colonial regime of Ethiopia to its subject

peoples of Western Somalia and of Eretria.. The importance of this

right is emphasized in Chapter I, Article 2, of the Charter, which

directs the United-Nations to develop friendly relations among States

based on respect for the principle of equal rights and the right to

self-determination of peoples.

240. The grave regional and international repercussions of the denial

of those rights continue to trouble the Horn of Africa. The exodus of

the hundreds of thousands who fled from persecutions and oppression

to take refuge in Somalia and other neighbouring countries involved

great human suffering, placed intolerable burdens on host countries

and continues today to be a disaster situation calling for

humanitarian assistance from the international community.

241. My Government's overriding concern in its approach to the

problems of Ethiopian colonialism is that the peoples of Western

Somalia and Eritrea be allowed to exercise the rights guaranteed

under General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV) and 1541 (XV).

Certainly, if the European colonial Powers had opposed the freedom

struggle in Africa with the same arguments which Ethiopia continues

to advance today to explain its continued occupation of Western

Somalia, very few colonial peoples would have been able to take

advantage of the provisions of resolutions 1514 (XV) and 1541 (XV).

242. It is important for the world community to understand that until

the 1890s when the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik joined the European

Powers in their scramble for Africa, the people of Western Somalia

enjoyed an independent existence and controlled their own affairs. It

was in the course of MeneJik's presumptuous attempt to extend the

Ethiopian Empire from Khartoum to Lake Nyanza that the Ogaden was

brutally seized.

243. Unfortunately, it served the interests of the colonial Powers to

support Menelik's territorial ambitions, and in typical imperialist

fashion illegal treaties purporting to transfer Somali territory to

the Ethiopian Empire were concluded-without the knowledge of the

people of Western Somalia. It was particularly ironic that the

supposed authority for transferring Somali territory was the series

of treaties between the colonial Powers and Somali chiefs which

guaranteed that the Somali people would be protected by those same

Powers and that their territory would not be ceded to any other Power.

244. It should be noted that Ethiopia was unable to exercise

sovereignty over an area which was clearly outside its normal

political, cultural and ethnic influence until after the Second World

War, and in some instances as recently as 1955. During the Halo

Abyssinian war of 1935-1936 Western Somalia was occupied by Italy.

Shortly afterwards the British conquered former Italian Somaliland

and Western Somalia

and, together with Somali territories already under British

colonialism, virtually all of Somaliland was united under a single

colonial Power. In "1942 Britain restored Ethiopian sovereignty in

Ethiopia proper which it had captured from Italy during the war, but

it retained the administration of Western Somalia. Unfortunately, the

inhabitants of the territory were once again betrayed by the British

Government and transferred against their will to Ethiopian rule in

1948 and 1955.

245. I take the liberty of recounting these historical facts not

only to refresh the memory of representatives present in the Assembly

but also to underscore the fact that the Territory of Western Somalia

is no different from other Territories which have since the Second

World War benefited from the process of decolonization in recognition

of the universal principle of the right of peoples to

self-determination and national independence, as enshrined in the

Charter. It is the denial ofthat right by the Empire State of

Ethiopia which is at the root of the conflict in the Horn of Africa.

246. As I have already stated, Ethiopian colonial repression has

generated refugees numbering millions. In Somalia alone there are

700,000 persons in camps and a similar number are living among the

population all over the country. Unless the problem of Western

Somalia is resolved on the basis of the exercise of

self-determination by the people of Western Somalia, the refugees

will not be able to return to their homes in safety and honour, and

there is every likelihood that their presence in Somalia and other

countries of the Horn of Africa besides constituting a grave danger

for the peace and security of the region will also take on a

permanent character necessitating continued relief aid and assistance

by the international community. The dangerous situation already

existing in the Horn of Africa, owing to colonialist Ethiopia's

policies of repression and genocide at its denial of the right to

self-determination to the people of Western Somalia-and, indeed, to

the other subject peoples within the Empire State of Ethiopia such as

Eritrea, Oromia and Tigray-has been further aggravated by that

country's wanton invasion of the territory of the Somali Democratic

Republic since 1 July of this year.

247. As representatives are no doubt aware, my Government has

addressed several communications to States Members of the United

Nations regarding this invasion and has given details of the nature

and extent of the unprovoked aggression, in which tanks and armoured

personnel carriers, long-range artillery and fighter bombers,

supplied to Ethiopia in massive quantities by a super-Power have been

deployed. Heavily armed Ethiopian infantry brigades. supported by

foreign forces, have managed to cross the de facto border-at one

point as deep as 32 kilometers in an effort to cut the important

arterial road which links the southern and northern parts of the

Somali Democratic Republic in order to disrupt a major lifeline of

our country. The town of Galdogob and the village of Blambal1e have

been captured and Galcayo, the regional capital of Mudug, has been

subjected to several aerial attacks by MIG-23s.

248. Somalia has opposed this invasion of its sovereignty and

territorial integrity in conformity with its right to self-defence

under Article 51 of the Charter and has so far repelled further

incursions into its territory. Unfortunately, both sides have

stuttered heavy casualties and considerable damage has been caused to

property in those areas of my country which have been attacked.

249. Ethiopia has attempted to spread the fiction that its forces are

not responsible for this naked act of aggression against Somali

territory. However, the recorded statements of deserters and

prisoners, along with captured documents in Russian and Amharic,

substantiate beyond any shadow of doubt that it is the Ethiopian army

which has undertaken the large-scale aggression mounted against my

country.

250. The use of T-55 tanks, MIG-23s, armoured personnel carriers and

heavy artillery, much of them new and complete with Soviet operation

manuals dated 1982 and bearing Ethiopian military insignia is

indisputable evidence of Ethiopia's direct responsibility for its

invasion.

251. It is ironic that the major Ethiopian air base at Gode in

occupied Ogaden. from which Ethiopian planes make their murderous

attacks on the Somali population, is the same airport which the

Ethiopian regime requested the United Nations, through a report of

the Secretary-General of 12 September 1980,8 to finance and

reconstruct, supposedly as a centre for humanitarian missions in the

area.

252. The international community has strongly condemned Ethiopia for

its invasion of my country -its shameless denials notwithstanding. By

way of example, the 69th Inter-Parliamentary Conference. which was

held in Rome in September. strongly condemned Ethiopia's invasion and

called for, among other things, the immediate, total and

unconditional withdrawal of all foreign forces from the territoryof

the Somali Democratic Republic Similarly, the Twelfth Arab Summit

Conference held at Fez in September, also strongly condemned Ethiopia

for its invasion and called for the strict observance of Somalia's

sovereignty and territorial integrity.

253. The Somali people are united in their determination to stand

firm against Ethiopian aggression, and the Somali armed forces will

continue to repel the attacks against our country. However, it is not

my Government's wish that the Horn of Africa should become a

permanent trouble spot threatening regional and international peace

and security. Colonialist Ethiopia must therefore be forced by the

international community to evacuate its forces from Somali territory

and to desist from committing further aggression against our soil.

For our part we remain ready to co-operate in the search for

effective political solutions to the problems of the area. What is

certain is that these problems will not be solved by oppressive

measures and premeditated aggression. Peace and stability can be

achieved only if historical wrongs are redressed and legitimate

national aspirations are recognized and respected.

254. My Government is deeply disappointed by the failure of the

second special session on disarmament to draw up a comprehensive

programme of disarmament. We deplore also the continued spiralling of

the arms race in nuclear weapons, the setback to negotiations for a

test-ban treaty and the stalemate on the establishment of a

convention prohibiting the use of chemical weapons.

255. It is clear therefore that there must be redoubled efforts on

the part of the nuclear Powers and militarily significant States to

translate the goals of the tenth special session into practical terms.

256. Bold new initiatives and higher levels of statesmanship will

be required if the nuclear Powers are to break out of the vicious

circle of mutual suspicion in which they are caught and if they are

to remove the threat of nuclear annihilation that hangs over the

world. In this regard the start of talks between the United States

and the Soviet Union on the reduction of strategic weapons and the

high level of public interest and involvement in disarmament issues

are grounds for some optimism.

257. It has been repeated so often that the nuclear-arms race and the

search for new weapons of mass destruction endanger mankind's

survival, that this very real threat is unfortunately in danger of

losing its persuasive power to bring about progress towards nuclear

disarmament. One pressing reality which cannot be denied or ignored

is that the astronomical sums spent each year on nuclear and

sophisticated conventional weapons fuel world inflation and obstruct

the establishment of amore just international economic order.

258. World inflation of course affects all States but its effects on

developing countries have been particularly cruel. Where in developed

countries inflation means the curtailment of luxuries, in the least

developed it often t leans deprivation of the necessities of life.

For the (ïeast developed, many of which, like Somalia, suffer from

natural and man-made disasters, the enormous debt problems caused by

inflation, the worsened conditions of trade and the drop in

development assistance have been catastrophic.

259. It is no doubt true that, except in the case of a few relatively

prosperous developed countries, the development goals to which the

United Nations membership is committed have never been so far from

achievement as at the present time, when we have already entered the

Third United Nations Development Decade.

260. My Government joins in calling on the developed countries to

co-operate in the launching of global negotiations-an initiative

which could give new impetus to the implementing of established

development goals. The steadily increasing gap between rich and poor

countries cannot be in the interest of peace with progress. We hope

it win be understood that the economic arrangement of the past cannot

justly serve the needs of an interdependent world, that the peace and

stability so desperately need\ d today go hand in hand with economic

growth and, finality that it will be for the benefit of all if the

poorer countries are helped to develop their resources to the point

where they in turn can contribute to a prosperous world economy.

261. In conclusion 1 should like to observe that, while there is

undoubted cause for deep concern over the inability of the United

Nations to solve inter-national political problems, it is important

that the blame for this situation be ascribed not to the Organization

and the Charter but to those who treat the obligations of membership

with indifference, neglect or contempt and who are prepared to

su1pport the world body only when its decisions conform to their

interest. As the Secretary-General points out in his report, in the

context of the peaceful settlement of disputes, we site lack a

binding sense of international community believe, however, that a

sense of inter-national community has developed through the

wide-ranging achievements of the United Nations in social, economic

and humanitarian fields.

262. As the agenda shows, the responsibilities under-taken by the

international community under the aegis of the United Nations range

from the sea-bed to outer space. The nexus of relationships and

responsibilities established in less political fields will not easily

be broken. In the last resort the United Nations remains an

unparalleled centre for international diplomacy and mankind's best

hope for peace.