Niger, 1982

The annual gathering of representatives of

virtually all the sovereign nations of the globe,

and of affiliated or interested international

institutions within the framework of the regular

session of the General Assembly of the United

Nations is always a source of great satisfaction

and moral comfort to us. We see therein the signs

of that ideal of tolerance which is inscribed in

the Charter and which inspires us all, despite

the different views we may hold about the various

events which are at present rending the world. We

also see therein the demonstration of our

willingness to discuss our differences, not to

say our divergences of opinion, and to seek

together ways and means to solve or eliminate

them.

That ideal of tolerance and dialogue could hardly

be symbolized more fittingly than by the gesture

of the unanimous election of Mr. Hollai as

President of the Assembly. Crowning his long

diplomatic career, that choice constitutes a

well-deserved tribute to his country, Hungary,

for its positive contribution to mutual

understanding among peoples and the strengthening

of co-operation among States. Certainly, the

reins which our President has taken over from Mr.

Kittani of Iraq are difficult to hold firm. But

we are convinced that his long and rich

experience of world affairs, particularly in the

United Nations system, will allow him to

undertake the difficult task with the same

wisdom, determination and efficiency as his

talented predecessor, to whom I should again like

to express the appreciation of the delegation of

the Niger.

The thirty-seventh session of the General

Assembly is opening in an international context

which is heavy with threats for all mankind, so

true is it that the course of affairs of our

world and the spirit guiding it remain dreadfully

marked by violence, injustice, egoism, and

ignorance or disregard of the principles and

noble ideals which the United Nations adopted in

its Charter in order to establish a world of

peace and progress for all. Such a situation is

likely, if care is not taken, to do serious and

lasting harm to the credibility of the

Organization—a credibility which is, moreover,

increasingly being challenged by international

public opinion, which is disturbed and anguished

because of the results achieved by United Nations

action in areas as vital for mankind as those of

disarmament, development and the maintenance of

peace and security.

Each of our peoples aspires to live in a world

free of wars and conflict, where hunger, sickness

and poverty are unknown. The events of today seem

to indicate that this prospect is further away

than ever, consequently revealing the inability

of the Organization, and of the system of

international relations as a whole, to respond

effectively to the political and economic

challenges which confront us.

In the political arena, that failure is even more

serious because it relates to problems which are

at least as old as the United Nations itself and

which the international community has assumed a

direct moral and historical responsibility to

resolve. I refer here to the problems of

Palestine and the Middle East and the question of

Namibia. To be sure, the United Nations has

formally recognized the legitimacy of the

struggle for self- determination of the peoples

of those countries by granting observer status to

their legitimate representatives, the PLO and the

South West Africa People's Organization. But the

fact remains that any mention of Palestine and

Namibia results in flagrant and unpunished

violations of international rules and customs,

brutal oppression, the denial of the rights of

peoples to self-determination and the invasion

and occupation of neighbouring States.

With regard to the question of Palestine, it

should be noted that the international community

as a whole has now finally accepted that the

Palestinian problem is at the head of the drama

which is tearing the Middle East apart, and that

any solution to that conflict must necessarily

involve the restoration of the inalienable rights

of the Palestinian people.

The great majority of the States of our community

recognize the PLO as the sole legitimate

representative of the Palestinian people, as well

as recognizing the absolute right of those people

to self- determination and to the creation of a

sovereign State on their own territory.

There is also reason to recall that at the

seventh emergency special session the General

Assembly adopted by an overwhelming majority

resolution ES-7/2, an important resolution

reaffirming the inalienable rights of the

Palestinian people to self- determination without

foreign interference, as well as to independence

and sovereignty, and stressing their right to

create a sovereign State on their own national

territory.

Similarly, the international community has on

many occasions, within the United Nations as well

as in other international forums, condemned the

continued occupation of Arab territories by

Israel and, on the basis of the principle of the

inadmissibility of the acquisition of territories

by force, has called for its total and

unconditional withdrawal.

But we must today note that the international

community has not been able to take any specific

action to ensure that the Palestinian people can

exercise their inalienable legitimate rights, to

restore to Arab sovereignty the territories

illegally occupied by Israel, and to guarantee

the independence, sovereignty and territorial

integrity of Lebanon. Thus far no action has been

possible to halt the policy practised by Israel

of systematic negation of the inalienable rights

of the Palestinian people and the rights of the

Arab and Lebanese people to peace and calm within

their borders.

It is a fact that Israel remains deaf to the

disapproval, the constant appeals to reason and

the condemnations of the international community.

On the contrary, guided by hatred, blinded by

military power, day after day displaying its

growing for the decisions of the United Nations,

Israel has adopted and is carrying out in an

outrageous manner an unbridled policy of

Judaization of Palestinian Arab lands through the

modification of their geographic, historical,

sociological and religious characteristics.

Pursuing its expansionist policy, Israel has

successively annexed the holy city of Jerusalem

and the Golan Heights, before launching its army

upon the conquest of Lebanon, a large portion of

whose territory is today occupied. At the same

time, populations living in the occupied Arab

territories are pitilessly subjected to ferocious

repression which nothing can justify.

Recent events in Lebanon, which in fact represent

only a single episode in the strategy of conquest

pursued by the Israeli State, prove—if any proof

were needed—that neither vehement protests nor

energetic condemnations are enough to thwart a

genocidal undertaking which discredits the action

of the United Nations as much as it makes guilty

by omission almost the entire international

community.

In the light of this holocaust of our time, faced

with this great tragedy, it demeans the

international community that its representatives

continue to cling to their well-known positions

and to conduct byzantine discussions on the texts

of resolutions which, when adopted, remain dead

letters. The memory of thousands of Palestinian

martyrs and of the innocent victims of Sabra and

Shatila cry cut to us, and call for decisive

action from us to restore the usurped rights of

the Palestinian people.

Against that background, the Organization of the

Islamic Conference, whose thirteenth session of

the Council of Ministers for Foreign Affairs the

Niger was greatly honoured to host, urges all the

States which love peace, liberty, justice and

progress to work collectively within the United

Nations for the adoption and implementation by

the Security Council of a new resolution

requiring in precise terms the Israeli withdrawal

from all occupied Palestinian and Arab

territories, including the holy city of A! Quds,

and the guaranteeing of the inalienable national

rights of the Palestinian people, namely, their

right to return to their homeland, Palestine;

their right to determine their own fate without

foreign interference; and their right to

establish an independent State on their national

territory, under the leadership of the PLO.

Furthermore, we believe that a sincere use of the

way courageously opened by the Twelfth Arab

Summit Conference, held at Fez in September of

this year, will allow the international community

to restore its image in the eyes of the

Palestinian people and of history. We say that in

the hope that the constructive peace proposals

unanimously adopted at Fez will be accepted by

Israel and will not suffer the same fate which

South Africa dealt to the United Nations plan for

Namibia—another situation which persists and

seriously concerns my Government owing to the

threats it represents for the security of the

African continent and for world peace.

The situation prevailing in Namibia is known to

everyone. It is a situation which is clearly

illegal and exceptionally painful for the

Namibian people which is enduring it and fighting

for its freedom; it is painful for the front-line

States which, because of their support for that

liberation struggle, expose themselves to

repeated acts of aggression by South Africa; and

it is painful for the United Nations, which has

an historic direct responsibility for Namibia.

Inspired both by its own foreign policy and the

principles of the Organization of African Unity

of the Niger intends, just as all of independent

Africa, to draw attention once again to that

situation and to the proposal of a rapid solution

for the Namibian problem. It does so in the name

of law and legality, in the name of morality and

justice, and for the benefit of peace and

international security.

The hope raised by the United Nations plan for

Namibia has still not been realized. In spite of

information showing notable progress in

negotiations for the implementation of the

provisions of Security Council resolution 435

(1978), we note that five years after the

adoption of that plan by the United Nations the

electoral system has not yet been defined, the

composition of the United Nations forces has not

yet been agreed upon, and the cease-fire has not

yet been decreed.

During this time South Africa has, with impunity,

continued its illegal occupation of Namibian

territory, its pillage of its natural resources,

and its outrageous acts of aggression against

neighbouring countries. Through manoeuvres which

now no longer deceive anyone it is attempting to

promote the establishment of institutions and

bodies which would alter the authenticity of

Namibia's independence into something artificial.

The racist minority regime of Pretoria,

strengthened by solid complicity, continues to

flout and defy the international community under

fallacious pretexts and with unreasonable

demands. Therefore the United Nations is

confronted with a deadlock in Namibia,

responsibility for which lies entirely with South

Africa—and no consideration, in particular one

related to Angola's sovereignty, can hide that

fact which was emphasized on 4 September at

Lusaka by the heads of State and Government of

the front-line States.

The Government of the Niger reiterates most

energetically its condemnation of the illegal and

continued occupation of Namibia by South Africa

and its repeated acts of aggression against the

front-line States. We hope that the international

community will display the necessary upsurge of

political will to lead Namibia to independence

and thus allow the surrounding countries to work

for their own economic and social development. In

this context, it is important for the United

Nations to think about establishing a massive aid

programme for those countries which today are

heroically bearing the burden of the unjust war

imposed upon them by the racist regime in

Pretoria.

The African peoples also expect of the

international community in general and from the

United Nations in particular energetic action to

eradicate the apartheid and racial discrimination

that are rife in the southern part of the African

continent. They fervently hope and wish for the

establishment in South Africa of political

conditions that would allow everyone, without any

consideration as to race, sex, language or

religion, to participate in the building of a

multiracial community like the one which is today

being built in Zimbabwe, a country which formerly

suffered from the evils of racial discrimination.

The achievement of such conditions will allow the

African countries to devote their efforts to the

improvement of the living conditions of their

peoples at this particular juncture in the

international economic situation when things are

already particularly difficult and continue to

worsen.

The world economy is today in a critical state of

disruption which many meetings held in various

parts of the world on the question have not been

able to prevent. Those stages—New York, Geneva,

Vienna, Paris, Cancun, Versailles and many

others—have been glimmers of Hope quickly dashed.

The disintegration of the economy has reached

such levels that any prognosis today would be

daring or haphazard. No one is attempting to do

that, neither Governments nor even international

financial and economic institutions. Everywhere

in the world one envisages the future with

pessimism. In this climate of gloom, concern and

almost panic, the fate of developing countries,

and especially the poorest among them, is

particularly alarming.

As channels for a limited group of export

commodities, developing countries today are

facing a marked deterioration in their terms of

trade—an evil which they have fought for many

years now without success. They are therefore

facing a catastrophic dwindling of their export

revenues. At the same time, high interest rates

on the main international financial markets and

the rise in the value of the dollar have

increased their loan and debt-servicing costs.

They can only watch as the standard of living of

their peoples drops sharply owing to galloping

inflation.

Their export revenues have plummeted, the cost of

borrowing and servicing the debt has soared; they

have been compelled to slow down the pace of

implementation of their development programmes—or

to make agonizing revisions. In some cases that

has led to the cancellation of those programmes;

in others, such as Chad, the effects of a long

and disastrous war, added to those of the

economic crisis, have created an even more tragic

situation which only a vast international

programme can remedy.

That is the very similar picture which we find,

with varying degrees of intensity, in the world

economy today, from North to South, East to West,

in the countries of the periphery as well as

those at the centre. The destabilizing effects,

internally and internationally, of such a

situation can be easily foreseen. In this

connection and stressing that this difficult

situation largely stems from the fact that

international financial and economic structures

have not adapted to the demands of the present

world, President Seyni Kountche said the

following at the thirty- sixth session of the

General Assembly:

"We shall spare the world from a very damaging

economic confrontation only if together we

overhaul North-South relations and work together

for a more unified approach to the development of

the world and for the well-being of mankind."

The wealthy countries should become aware of that

requirement and, although they, too, are affected

by the crisis, they must understand that the

recovery of their economy for which their

citizens long require decisive action in favour

of developing countries. The modalities of such

action e been laid down by representatives in

various international forums from Cancun to

Toronto; but, for various reasons, the proposals

that have been made have not been completely

taken into account. People continue to maintain

that a considerable increase in the capital of

the two main international financial institutions

is not needed. Some even continue to advocate

limiting the relevant credit facilities for

deprived peoples. There is certainly a basically

negative and selfish attitude involved; it is

embodied in the position of those who prevent ail

progress towards the establishment of a more just

and equitable new international economic order.

The various economic conferences held in recent

years, both within the framework of the United

Nations and in other international bodies, have

all shown the need for a reorganization of the

present international economic and financial

structures. In the light of the serious crisis

which is shaking the world economy today, a

restructuring of the present order has become a

categorical imperative if we wish to spare

mankind painful turmoil. We must accept the fact

that no nation represented in this Hall, however

powerful it may be, can reasonably think that it

can do without the others. Attempts to seek

isolated solutions to the serious economic

problems of our world today are unquestionably

doomed to failure. The concept of the

interdependence of nations is today more than

ever before of special significance.

In this connection we find in the report of the

Secretary-General on the work of the Organization

relevant comments on the development of United

Nations action along such lines, because no organ

is better able than this one, despite its

insufficiencies and limitations, to offer the

possibility of fostering a spirit of harmony,

interdependence, solidarity and co-operation

among nations.

I should like to pay a well-deserved tribute to

the Secretary-General for the clear and

courageous manner in which he analysed the

deep-rooted causes of the disorder in the present

system of multilateral relations and set out

certain guidelines which could be used as a basis

for innovative action on the part of the

Organization to establish a world order capable

of meeting the aspirations of the peoples to

peace, justice, freedom and economic and social

progress.

We are ready to play our part in this major

battle, because we are aware that this is a

question of saving the world from the cataclysm

which lies in wait. As for the Niger, as has been

stressed here by President Seyni Kountche "we are

ardent supporters of peace, tireless workers for

good-neighbourliness and fervent apostles of

dialogue and understanding among nations".