Bangladesh, 1982

The members of my delegation and I deem it an honour and a privilege

to have the opportunity of participating in the thirty seventh

session of the General Assembly. We bring representatives the warm

greetings of the Government and the people of Bangladesh. On behalf

of the Bangladesh delegation and on my own behalf, I congratulate Mr.

Hollai on his unanimous election as President of the thirty seventh

session of the General Assembly. We are confident that his qualities

of leadership and wealth of experience will be of immense value to

the Assembly in accomplishing its task. We offer him our co operation

and support in fulfilling his heavy responsibility during the days

ahead. My delegation would like to take this opportunity to

congratulate his predecessor, Mr. Kittani of Iraq, on his determined

and energetic leadership not only during the thirty sixth session of

the General Assembly but also during the second special session

devoted to disarmament and the emergency special session on the

question of Palestine. His patience and wisdom have been greatly

appreciated by all of us. My delegation would also like to pay a

tribute to the new Secretary General, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar,

who, within the short period since the assumption of his most

difficult responsibilities, has earned our trust and confidence for

his absolute dedication and impartiality. The Government of

Bangladesh congratulates him on his unremitting efforts and ceaseless

endeavours in promoting the purposes and principles of the Charter.

We assure him of our fullest support for all his efforts aimed in

this direction. Bangladesh deeply mourns the passing of His Majesty

King Khaled of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In him the entire world

has lost an outstanding personality dedicated to the cause of peace

and justice. Since its independence as a sovereign nation, Bangladesh

has made consistent efforts to work for the greater interest of the

international community. The foreign policy of Bangladesh is based on

total adherence to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the

United Nations. We see this world body as a unique instrument for

promoting global peace and development based on justice and equity.

We greatly appreciate the candor with which the Secretary General in

his report has brought to our notice the shortcomings of the

Organization. We in Bangladesh will support the Secretary General in

all his efforts to make the United Nations an effective organization

for maintaining world peace and security. Bangladesh has chosen non

alignment as the cornerstone of its foreign policy. We are committed

to working tirelessly together with other peace loving nations of the

world to create an environment of peace in which people can harness

all available resources to combat the scourge of poverty, hunger,

disease and illiteracy, thus achieving economic freedom without

sacrificing political freedom. As at previous sessions this year,

too, we have a long agenda and we are very conscious of the number of

crucial issues before us. We notice a progressive decline in the

international situation. There is widespread use offence, the

continuing existence of foreign occupation forces and acts of

aggression, total disregard for the principle of self determination,

and flouting of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the

Security Council. The situation prevailing in the Middle East remains

dangerous and highly explosive, posing a serious threat to

international peace and security. This state of affairs is due to the

persistence of Israel in its flagrant denial of the inalienable

rights of the Palestinian people, as recognized by the United

Nations. The latest Israeli holocaust in Lebanon has rendered the

situation in the Middle East more explosive than ever before. Along

with the peoples of all peace loving nations, we in Bangladesh have

been stunned by the appalling act of inhuman massacre of a large

number of innocent and unarmed Palestinian men, women and children in

their camps in west Beirut. The Government of Bangladesh is of the

view that the question of Palestine constitutes the core of the

Middle East problem. There can be no just and lasting peace in the

Middle East unless the Palestinian people can exercise their

legitimate rights, including the right to return to their homeland,

their right to self determination and to establish a State of their

own under the leadership of the PLO their sole and legitimate

representative, with Jerusalem as its capital. Further, the

inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force imposes an

obligation on Israel to withdraw completely from all the territories

it has occupied since 1967, including the Holy City of Jerusalem. Any

solution that fails to recognize these rights and realities will pose

a constant threat to peace and stability in the region. We are

particularly distressed at the continuing and self defeating armed

conflict between Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Bangladesh,

as a member of the Islamic Peace Committee, has made sincere efforts

to resolve that conflict peacefully. It is a great tragedy that

despite our collective efforts the war is still continuing. We should

like to make a renewed appeal to Iran and Iraq to stop this armed

conflict forthwith and to resolve their differences through peaceful

means. It is also extremely disheartening that the crises in

Afghanistan and in Kampuchea remain unresolved. We should do

everything possible to ensure the withdrawal of all foreign troops

from those two countries and to ensure that the people in both those

countries are permitted to determine their own destinies without any

outside intervention or interference. We firmly believe that peace is

possible In southern Africa only through the transfer of power to the

people of Namibia. We appreciate the sustained mediatory efforts of

the five Western Powers in evolving an agreement on Namibia's

transition to independence under the control and supervision of the

United Nations. It is the view of Bangladesh that peace and security

would be promoted through the creation of zones of peace in areas

like the Indian Ocean, South Asia and South East Asia, the

Mediterranean and other regions. Such zones would have to take into

account the interrelated aspects of eliminating the military presence

of and threat from external Powers and the maintenance of security

among the regional States. In this context, we support the convening

of a conference in Sri Lanka next year as a step towards the

implementation of the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of

Peace. Bangladesh has also been making unrelenting efforts to promote

peace and stability in the South Asian region through the creation of

a climate of trust, understanding and co operation on the basis of

mutual respect for sovereign equality and non interference in the

internal affairs of other States. Taking into account our friendly

relations within our region with India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri

Lanka and Maldives, Bangladesh has proposed the creation of a

regional co operation forum among those countries. Substantial

progress has been made towards the implementation of this proposal,

and the necessary preparatory work is still under way for making the

process self sustaining and irreversible. It has also been decided

to convene a meeting at the level of Foreign Ministers next year to

launch the forum. We believe that our statement on global issues

would be incomplete if we did not say a few words about our national

efforts to achieve a better living for our people. Mr. H. M. Ershad,

on assumption of the office of the head of Government of Bangladesh,

clearly spelt out his Government's objectives: first, to bring

maximum benefit to the 90 million people of Bangladesh; secondly, to

ensure maximum participation by the people of the country through

existing political institutions and, thirdly, to create a simple,

well balanced administration capable of responding to the needs of

the people. In order to achieve these objectives, the Government of

Bangladesh has spelt out plan priorities, which are: self sufficiency

in agriculture, population control, encouragement of the private

sector, universal primary education and extensive and integrated

rural development programmes, including health and social welfare.

These priorities and the decentralization of administration which has

been initiated by the Government are designed to revitalize the

social and economic activities and to lay the foundation of a new

Bangladesh. We are confident that these efforts by us at the national

level will receive whole hearted support from the international

community. We in Bangladesh are therefore deeply concerned that the

international situation has further deteriorated, generating despair

and pessimism. The world economy is passing through a very serious

crisis threatening both the developed and the developing countries.

The second special session devoted to disarmament has met with

miserable failure, while armament expenditures continue to rise. The

crisis spots all over the world also continue to multiply. Our most

important task therefore should be to address these problems in a

concerted and collective manner. The evolution of international

society has made it manifest more than ever before that most problems

today are interlinked and global in character. There can be no

piecemeal solution. There can be no lasting peace so long as economic

imbalances and injustices prevail. Peace is meaningless if it is not

accompanied by development. To achieve a better world, mankind must

have both. While we strive for peace, our efforts for development

should not lag behind. Bangladesh strongly believes that the right to

development is a human right and that equality of opportunity for

development is as much the prerogative of nations as of individuals

within nations. The present inequities of the world economic order,

accompanied by the accelerated arms race, is therefore at the root of

all world problems and one of the most significant obstacles to the

realization of both the right to development and the right to peace.

As the head of Government and President of the Council of Ministers

of Bangladesh, Mr. H. M. Ershad, declared from this rostrum during

the twelfth special session and the second special session devoted to

disarmament, the three major challenges confronting mankind's

continued progress and eventual survival are the arms race,

underdevelopment and the unlawful use of force in solving

international disputes. Peace and development are indivisible and

both can be achieved to a large extent through effective disarmament.

The enormous resources that can be released through a well

intentioned disarmament process would give a tremendous boost to the

development efforts of the developing countries. In this period of

resource difficulties, such diversion of resources is of crucial

importance. This point which we are making is not a new one and has

been repeated many times in this forum as well as in others.

Unfortunately, though, it has not been translated into reality by the

parties concerned. We therefore urge everyone, big or small, to give

this idea serious thought, keeping in mind the question of the

survival and progress of mankind as a whole. The annual military

expenditures of nearly $600 billion, which is more than 10 times the

amount now available for development assistance, is totally

irrational. Such wasteful use of enormous amounts of the world's

precious limited resources is also clearly immoral when millions die

of starvation and many more millions are struggling for their very

survival. Bangladesh acceded to the Treaty on the Non Proliferation

of Nuclear Weapons as a demonstration of its total commitment to

general and complete disarmament. In view of the failure of the

second special session on disarmament, we urge the super Powers and

other militarily significant States to concert their efforts so as to

commence serious negotiations on a comprehensive test ban treaty as

well as a conventional weapon treaty. Work on the comprehensive

programme of disarmament, which forms the core of the negotiations on

the reduction of armament, both nuclear and conventional, should be

started inGeneva within the framework of the Committee on

Disarmament. The failure of the Assembly at the second special

session on disarmament to produce a final document on the

comprehensive programme of disarmament should not be taken as an

alibi to avoid the responsibility that devolves on the super Powers

as well as other militarily significant countries. Bangladesh, in its

total commitment to general and complete disarmament, has applied for

membership in the Committee on Disarmament and is ready to contribute

to all future disarmament negotiations to be undertaken in the

Committee on Disarmament. The present world economic crisis is of a

global nature. The interrelationship of issues and the

interdependence of the countries are so clearly established that

isolated measures by any individual country or group of countries

cannot solve the contradictions and difficulties that appear as a

result of profound structural imbalance. On the other hand, we agree

with the view that deterioration in the international economic

situation has in part been due to policies pursued in countries with

a preponderant weight in the world economy, as they have sought to

solve their problems on a national basis. The present state of crisis

can be overcome only through a global and concerted effort on the

part of countries. Therefore we believe that a lasting improvement in

international economic relations can be achieved only through a

global dialogue a sincere, determined and imaginative co operation

between the developed and the developing countries. It does not need

reiteration that all nations have a stake in the recovery of the

world economy and should, therefore, engage themselves in a

purposeful effort to address themselves to a world recovery programme

and a restructuring the existing international economic relations.

Bangladesh believes that the present unjust international economic

system requires structural reforms which could result only from a

comprehensive and integrated approach to the present international

economic issues through the participation of all countries in a round

of global negotiations for the establishment of the new international

economic order. Bangladesh has, therefore, actively joined in all the

initiatives and efforts for the launching of global negotiations as

envisaged in General Assembly resolution 34/138. We earnestly hope

that in view of its importance to the economic development of the

world as a whole, it will be possible for us to launch the global

negotiations without further delay. Bangladesh will continue to make

its humble contribution towards this effort in its capacity as

Chairman of the Group of 77. Before concluding, on behalf of the

Bangladesh delegation, I wish to assure you, Mr. President, and

through you all the members of the Assembly that Bangladesh is

determined to play a meaningful and constructive role in finding just

and equitable solutions to the problems which face us today. It is

our strong belief that, despite the frustrations of the past, the

United Nations system is still the only organization which can bring

effective peace, progress prosperity to our world. In order to

achieve common objective, all the Members of the United Nations, big

and small, must unite together to make this body more effective both

in spirit and in action.