Lesotho, 1982

The multiplicity of the problems with which the United Nations has to

contend is clearly reflective of its universality. Yet in the 37

years of its existence the Organization has shed light unto many.

Within this forum, great hopes have been realized, misery and despair

have been averted and a new generation of man has been moulded a

generation that recognizes the value of diplomatic intercourse over

the perils and degradation of warfare. It would not be wrong,

therefore, to suggest that the current worsening international

climate, characterized by grave economic imbalances and world wide

political turmoil, presents but simple trials which this world body

can readily contain. I trust that our unity of purpose, bold

determination and serene statesmanship will help us through the heavy

agenda ahead of us. In congratulating the President on his election

to preside at this session, I should like also to assure him and the

other officers of the Assembly of my delegation's firm support and co

operation. We are convinced that, as a distinguished statesman of the

Hungarian People's Republic, he will be able to steer our

deliberations to a successful conclusion. Permit me to congratulate

the President of the thirty sixth session, Mr. Kittani, who

discharged his obligations honourably. Since this is the first

regular session of the General Assembly at which we have the benefit

of the services of the new Secretary General, I should like to

congratulate Mr. Perez de Cuellar on his elevation to the high office

of guardian of international law and order and mentor to the world's

leaders. To him we have entrusted for the next five years the future

of the United stations. We are convinced that, as the son of a third

world country, he is better able than anybody else to articulate the

concerns and aspirations of the developing world. It is also fitting

at this stage warmly to thank his predecessor, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, who

steered the Organization through many a difficult time over the past

10 years. The success of the United Nations during those 10 years is

clearly demonstrated in the; increase in the membership of the

Organization, the marked decline in the suffering of the South East

Asian refugees and the high priority accorded by the United Nations

to various international problems. Regrettably, there have been

setbacks in the operation of the Organization, as evidenced in the

case of Namibia. One of the primary goals of the founding fathers of

the Organization is nearing achievement. I refer to the

decolonization agenda. While many countries have gained independence

in the years since the founding of the United Nations, we are still

waiting for Namibia to accede to independence. Namibia is a test case

which should give the United Nations the image of an international

arbiter. If it does not, the United Nations continues to be

characterized by cynics everywhere as a connotation of uselessness

and inaction. When the glorious day of independence finally arrived

in Namibia, a sad chapter in the struggle of a people to rid itself

of foreign domination will be closed. TM world has witnessed the

worst defiance of international opinion as South Africa has employed

one subterfuge after another to delay the attainment of independence

by the people of Namibia. We are heartened by the fact that progress

has been made on this issue in recent months, but we find it highly

disturbing that the withdrawal of South African troops from Namibia

is being linked with the withdrawal of Cuban troops from the People's

Republic of Angola. No one can question the right of any sovereign

State to determine its internal affairs, including its sovereign

right to seek technical and military assistance from any friendly

country. The presence of Cuban personnel in Angola is an extraneous

issue which should not delay Namibia's independence. In any case, it

has always been our stand that South Africa will delay the

independence of Namibia until such time as it may get a Government

amenable to dictates. One of the ploys it is using to delay Namibia's

independence is setting conditions such as the present one. That

condition is unnecessary and uncalled for, and it negates the

sovereignty of Angola.

The numerous obstacles which have been placed in the way of a

peaceful settlement of the Namibian issue have delayed the solution

of this problem. I have to express in the Assembly the genuine fear

of my Government that if this issue is made so drag on indefinitely,

it may bring about the very thing that everybody has been trying to

avoid for the last five years turning southern Africa into a constant

hotbed of tension and a new arena of East West conflict. The

President of the thirty sixth session of the Assembly, Mr. Kittani,

presided over the second special session devoted to disarmament, in

June July this year. That second global attempt to give disarmament a

special place in this grim catalogue of the ills that afflict mankind

clearly reflects the threat of universal annihilation that is posed

by the unprecedented arms build up. That is why we have to express

openly our disappointment that the session failed to produce any

results. The world political situation remains tense; old rivalries

have reemerged; the prospects of peace and tranquility have been

diminished and the probability of war has been enhanced. In this

decade of the 1980s we are facing a critical nation in which man's

lust for peace is being replaced by a lust fbr war. The world order,

on both the political and the economic front, continues to manifest

signs of decline and impending collapse. This point is all the more

poignant at this time when we are witnessing a resurgence of big

Power rivalry and a dangerous tendency to assume that superior force

is the final arbiter in international relations. This dangerous trend

in the conduct of foreign policy must be arrested before it is too

late. Lesotho will continue to participate in all efforts aimed at

bringing about a global consensus on the vital issues of

international peace and security, disarmament and the new

international economic order, on the basis of the principles of the

Charter of the United Nations. Lesotho, as a member of the non

aligned movement, places a high premium on international respect for

the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of States. We

are therefore alarmed at the increasing readiness of States to use

force to safeguard their proclaimed interests or to assert

territorial claims, without any regard for the interests of other

States, especially the weak and defenseless ones. I cannot comment on

the current international political situation without touching on

recent events in Lebanon, especially the human tragedies that have

unfolded in that war torn land. We witnessed earlier the brutal siege

of west Beirut by Israeli forces. No sooner had the siege been lifted

than a succession of tragedies began to befall the people of Lebanon

and the Palestinian refugees. The world learned with shock and dismay

of the dastardly assassination of President elect Jashir Gemayel,

only to witness a few days later an even greater human tragedy and

spectacle the massacre of Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps

of Sabra and Shatila. Those unfortunate events have irrevocably

placed the Palestinian issue at the centre of Middle East politics

and have once and fbr all crystallized its central position in all

peace efforts. The question of Palestinian rights and Palestinian

self determination cannot be treated merely as a political issue, the

solution of which is subject to Israel's security requirements. It is

an issue which has brought untold suffering upon the Palestinian

people. They have suffered the degradation of displacement and the

squalor of refugee camps in foreign countries. Today they have

suffered a tragedy which invokes the deepest human emotions and

disturbs the conscience and moral values of mankind. The Palestinian

issue has come to symbolize, in our time, the ills and deficiencies

which plague international diplomacy. We have maintained all along

that the Palestinian issue is the crux of the Middle East problem. We

do not need further massacres of Palestinian refugees to be reminded

that the issue of Palestinian self determination is the crucial item

on the agenda of peace in the Middle East. It is about time Israel

learned that its security lies not in the dispersal of the

Palestinian people and in war but in peace. Lesotho does not condone

the breach of peace in the Middle East and southern Africa, nor does

it countenance with complicity the presence of foreign troops in

Kampuchea and Afghanistan. We are fully aware of the complex

political and military relationships in South East Asia and South

West Asia, and particularly the strategic interests of foreign Powers

in those vital areas. In our humble view, the issue of peace in those

areas does not depend solely on Viet Nam's willingness to withdraw

its troops from Kampuchea and on Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan;

it depends also on an overall recognition of the security

requirements of each and every State in those regions. Another focal

point of tension is the Korean peninsula. We renew our call for

resumption of dialogue, without pre conditions or external

interference, between the two parts of Korea so as to bring about a

peaceful reunification of that artificially divided land. I also wish

to repeat the well known position of Lesotho on the question of the

Falkland Islands. The Falk larders should be allowed to determine

their own future in accordance with their inalienable right to self

determination as stipulated in the Charter of the United Nations and

General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV). The history of the human race

is replete with international efforts to accord man his rightful

place within the community of free nations. Over the past three

decades in particular, the international community has witnessed a

succession of attempts to codify legal instruments aimed at the

promotion and protection of the basic rights of man. Ironically,

world wide reports of flagrant and persistent violations of the

sanctity of the human person continue to filter into the already

heavy agenda of the United Nations. This is clearly reflective of

man's reluctance to conform deeds to words. In this respect, we

applaud once more the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

adopted at the eighteenth session of the Assembly of Heads of State

and Government of the OAU. Significantly, the Charter draws attention

to the distinctive nature of African values and morals, and also

provides fbr the respective duties and responsibilities of

individuals and groups to their communities. Lesotho is at present

engaged in moves to incorporate the provisions of the African Charter

on Human and Peoples' Rights into our municipal law. History will be

made in Kingston, Jamaica, when the United Nations Convention on the

Law of the. Sea is opened for signature in December. This will be the

culmination of nine years of patient negotiations and a firm

determination to accord land locked States access to the sear whose

resources are the common heritage of all. It is to be hoped that once

it comes into force good will will prevail upon the international

community to make the Convention a success. My Government is

satisfied that UNDP has played a very important role in the transfer

of assistance from the developed to the developing countries, and its

importance in this role has all the more increased, as revealed by

its latest reports. We also take cognizance of the interest UNDP

shows in the least developed countries. We, therefore, wish to pledge

our confidence in the manner in which the Administrator is handling

the affairs of UNDP, and we give him the assurance of our co

operation. We are aware that his task during the current cycle will

be made more difficult by the fact that resource prospects for the

period are gloomy and far from promising. However, we have reason to

believe that the newly created Inter sessional Committee of the Whole

will soon come up with specific proposals for recovery in the short

term and for the longer term to secure predictability, continuity and

assurance in the funding of the Programme. The developing countries

recognize that they are, in the first instance, responsible for their

own economic and social development and that external aid should only

be supplementary. They accept that the economic challenges of the

future demand a complete elimination of unhealthy competition among

them. At the same time, they are aware of their individual

limitations. It is for these reasons that the idea of economic co

operation among developing countries is increasingly gaining ground.

We, therefore, entirely support the Lagos Plan of Action for the

Implementation of the Monrovia Strategy for the Economic Development

of Africa, whose future projections are geared towards economic

integration of Africa by the year 2000. We recognize that ECA is

engaged in consolidating sub regional plans and strategies towards

the noble goal of economic integration. We support the

recommendations of the Joint Inspection Unit on the reorganization of

ECA recognizing the role of multinational programming and operational

centres. We applaud the signature last year of the Preferential Trade

Area Agreement for east and southern Africa in Lusaka, Zambia. The

significance of the PTA is seen in particular in its scope, spanning

as it does some 7.2 million square kilometres with a population of

about 140 million people. For our part, having overcome domestic

limitations imposed on us by our geography y Lesotho ratified the PTA

Agreement in March 1982. We view the PTA as a right step towards the

basic restructuring of the economic base of our continent. As the

Executive Secretary of ECA, Mr. Adebayo Adedeji, said at the December

meeting to launch the PTA, we see our continent as a boat in which

there is less to eat, where poverty and degradation is the plight of

the average person, a boat which may sink before long unless all

hands are on deck and a will to survive and eventually thrive

manifests itself. This will to survive has been adequately

articulated within the PTA and the Southern African Development Co

ordination Conference. This will to survive is further lucidly

elaborated in the Lagos Plan of Action, which maps out Africa's

economic strategy to the year 2000. We are, however, far from

realizing the fact that the search for a universally acceptable

formula of self reliance through the process of global negotiations

has not yet been achieved. We are concerned about the continuing

hesitation by some developed countries and we urge that an agreement

be reached to launch global negotiations not later than January 1983.

With respect to the special economic assistance programme for

Lesotho, I am proud to announce that the generous response of the

international community to the request for special economic

assistance for Lesotho has been most encouraging and has permitted

the implementation of a substantial portion of the programme. Some of

the projects have been fully funded and others have been financed in

part as revealed in the report of the Secretary General. On behalf of

the Basotho nation, the Lesotho Government and myself, I wish

sincerely to thank all donor countries and regional and

intergovernmental organizations, as well as United Nations bodies and

agencies for the assistance rendered under the special economic

assistance programme for Lesotho. They can all be assured that good

use has been made and will continue to be made of their

contributions. We urge to be donor countries to continue to respond

to the appeal made in the report just mentioned. The complexity of

the geo political situation, of which we are an integral part, hardly

permits us the equanimity to consider Lesotho's political and socio

economic problems without reference to the conditions which prevail

in South Africa. The Assembly will have noticed that stability in

South Africa is becoming more illusory and that the prospects of

eventual racial accommodation are dimmer. At no time since the

doctrine of apartheid became a way of life in South Africa has the

Government of that country faced as great an assault on their racial

policies as it does now. Within South Africa itself signs of

confrontation manifest themselves from all sectors of social life.

Pretoria faces opposition from students, church leaders and sections

of the white population, and the Nationalist laager itself is in

terrible disarray. In our strong and vociferous opposition to as

repeatedly stated in the past, we proceed from the moral position

that apartheid is dangerous, not only for South Africa itself but

also for its immediate neighbours and civilized humanity as a whole.

We seek not to preach to South Africa regarding the objectionable

tenets of its domestic policies, but we respond to a moral demand

which we can only ignore at our own peril. We have to call

continuously on South Africa to abandon the disastrous path of

apartheid, which leads to the dead end of racial confrontation, a

prospect too ghastly to contemplate. Lesotho will not watch silently

while the stage is being set for a confrontation which would reduce

southern Africa to ashes. For us the impending disaster with which

apartheid threatens southern Africa is as real and as terrifying as

the grim prospect of a nuclear holocaust hovering over mankind today.

Because of our geographical location within the borders of South

Africa, we cannot contemplate the prospect of violence and

destruction in that country with composure. Our primary

responsibility is to ensure the survival of our nation in peace and

tranquility. Even when the writing is on the wall and clear fbr South

Africa to read, the authorities in Pretoria continue to tinker with

the problem. The recently proposed constitutional dispensation for

Colourgds and Indians is a political force. It is meant to appease

public opinion while it shows the seeds of conflict and tribal

polarization. It is intended to put up a façade of political change,

to hoodwink world public opinion and to lessen pressure from abroad,

thus creating a breathing space for the Apartheid policies, which

have apparently run their course and outlived their usefulness to the

South African regime. This constitutional arrangement completely

ignores and circumvents the rights and legitimate aspirations of the

black South Africans that constitute the overwhelming majority of the

people of South Africa. It seeks to isolate the Coloureds and the

Indians from the mainstream of the political struggle inside South

Africa by turning them into allies of apartheid without giving them

any tangible benefits from such an unwholesome association. Finally I

should like to thank all those Member States that have stood by us

during our moments of great difficulty and all those that have

hastened to assure us of their solidarity in times of great trial.

The OAU, in particular, through the Secretary General, Mr. Kodjo,

has been a true custodian of the principles and purposes which guided

the founding fathers of the OAU. He has tirelessly kept the situation

in Lesotho under constant surveillance, an act which has assured us

that our plight in southern Africa is a matter of grave concern to

the community of free nations. This awareness has given us courage to

look forward with determination to a future in which southern Africa

will be rid of all racial discrimination and segregation. Lesotho

offers its firm pledge to contribute towards the evolution of a

southern Africa of peace, prosperity, tranquility and respect fbr the

sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States in the region. We

call upon South Africa sincerely to offer a similar undertaking.