General Assembly Devoted to Disarmament

111 United Nations 13th GENERAL PLENARY MEETING ASSEMBLY J.t'ednesday, 8 June 1988, FIFTEENTH SPECIAL SESSION at 3.30 p.m. Official Records NEW YORK President: Mr. Peter FLORIN the so-called third world or developing countries (German Democratic Republic). nearly one billion people live in poverty and squalor; over 700 million human beings suffer from under nourishment; almost 900 million people are illiterate in the third world, with the aggravating factor that nearly one and a half billion people are suffering In the absence of the President. Mr. Legwaila from diseases that would be curable if they had (Botswana), Vice-President, took the Chair. access to medical services and medicaments. Thus, the arms race doubly affects the developing coun AGENDA ITEM 8 tries, because of the accumulation of ever-more sophisticated weapons and because of the fact that General deb~ le (continued) the financial resources for the manufacture of those weapons come from the same national sources, rendering insignificant the funds channeled to the 1. Mr. DE MOURA (Angola):* The President's economic and social development of our countries. conduct of the forty-second session of the General That is why some of our countries repeatedly reaf Assembly, his devotion to the ca~se of .peace and firm the close relationship that exists between dis disarmament and the firmness wIth WhICh we see armament and development. That is also why we him presiding ove: our work allow us to have support the recomme,ndation for trye adopti<?n of confidence in the success of this third special session drastic measures for dIsarmament, WIth the ultImate of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament. goal not only of guaranteeing peaceful coexistence The An~JOlan delegation assures the President of the among peoples but also of releasing resources for supportnecessary for the performance of his duties. development. 2. This special session of the General Assembly is 5. At this third session the utmost effort must then taking place at a time when ~efinite hop.es are be made to consider the two aspects of peace. beginning to emerge for the s.urv.Ival of man~md. In Application of the action programmel approved by fact, just when we were begmnmg thIS seSSIon the the International Conference on the Relationship leaders of the Soviet Union and of the United States between Disarmament and Development. held in were meeting in Moscow, at their fourth summit New York from 24 August to 11 September 1987, meeting, to continue the steps undertaken f<?r redu~ must be encouraged. We are convinced that without tion of the nuclear arsenals of both countnes. ThIS resources for development there can be no peace. fact is in itself of major significance for the interna That is a fact that the United Nations cannot tional community. The idea that military supremacy underestimate. as an instrument of international relations has to be permanently condemned is becoming firmer and 6. This special session must also reaffirm thc validi firmer. It is up to us, then, to recognize the steps ty of the Final Document that we approved at the taken thus far in these bilateral efforts, steps that first special session of the General Assembly devoted mark the beginning ofa new era for a better and safer to disarmament [resolution 8-10/2], as well as the world, for the present and future generations. objectives, principles and priorities established .t~e~e. The need to adopt practIcal meaSUies to a VOIO me 3. In support of this spirit of negotiation, leading io outbreak of a nuclear war, the urgency of ending the elimination of nuclear and other weapons, the nuclear-weapon tests and the importance of stopping Organization of African Unity [OA U] and the Move the arms race continue to be priority tasks that we ment of Non-Aligned Countries, of which the Peo cannot shirk. Nuclear weapons, by their very nature, ple's Republic of Angola is a member State, produced are instruments for the annihilation of the human statements that reflect our points of view as countries species. It is recognized th'lt a nuclear war cannot be struggling for a just and lasting peace. We can thus won and must never be fl ,ht. It is thus necessary say that no country rejoices more than does Angola for the producers and pos~e~sors of those weapons to in the achievement of an international agreement commit themselves here and to proclaim universally that will eliminate the possibility of a nuclear conflict that they will not use these w~apons and that t.he and direct us irreversibly towards a process of total funds for their manufacture WIll henceforth be In and complete disarmament, so that international vested in social, economic and scientific projects for peace and security will be strengthened. the benefit of those in the world who have directly or indirectly suffered from the negative effects of every 4. More than one billion dollars are being spent type of weapon of mass destruction. each yerLr in the arm3 race, while in the countries of *Mr. re Moura spoke in Portuguese. The English version of his 7. It is necessary to add to these priorities, in the statemer,t was supplied by the delegation. light of recent events, the need to take concrete steps 247 A/S-15/PV.13 I! 248 General Assembly-Fifteenth Special Session-Plenary Meetings to prevent the extension of the arms race to outer 13. In the meetings of the Council of Ministers and preferrin space. The dangers of the militarization of space are the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of eign Stal obvious; it is necessary for us to strive to stop a new the Organization of African Unity, held at Addis scenario of spiralling armaments into the cosmos, the Ababa fro.n 19 to 28 May 1988, as well as in the 18. Zan common heritage of mankind, whose use must be special ministerial meeting devoted to disarmament Lesotho exclusively reserved for peaceful purposes. of the Co-ordinating Bureau of the Movement of Africa ar Non-Aligned Countries, held at Havana from 26 to tion by J 8. Another area that also concerns us in Angola is 30 May, the hope was expressed that this session own peor that of chemical weapons. We suspect, and we now would mark the beginning of tangible results for co-operat charge, that chemical gases have been used in disarmament and international peace. The clear of the ru southern Angola by the racist invaders of the Pretoria position of African and non-aligned countries, con confronta regime. We favour the efforts now under way for the solidated in the final documents of Addis Ababa and ern Afric conclusion ofan international convention to prohibit Havana, is a valuable contribution to the work of this the use of chemical weapons. third special session. 19. Angl ever, doe 9. We believe that the establishment of fair and 14. We are not direct participants in the arms race, defending equitable international relations, based on peaceful nor do we possess offensive weapons. But we are not aggressior coexistence and on confidence between States and mere spectators to the controversy between the so aggression the development of co-operation founded on mutual called developed countries that possess nuclear weap we cannot interests, does not have to be subordinated to ons. We share in the search for decisions and invoked t ideological contradictions nor to the level of techni agreements on general and complete disarmament to Cuban pn: calor scientific development that divides cou:ltries guarantee world peace. Thus, Angola, in spite of the region. TJ into developed or underdeveloped categories. This hostility of the apartheid regime, expressed in direct permanen has also been recognized, furthermore, by the inter or indirect aggression or in the occupation to this day People's J national community and is reflected in the Final of various parts of Angolan territory, has taken a internatiOl Document approved in 1978 at the first special flexible position in the search for fair, negotiated aspires to session on disarmament. solutions which will bring general peace to southern Africa, guarantee the security and respect for the 20. We ( 10. The arms race is incompatible with the Charter sovereignty of the People's Republic of Angola and Movement of the United Nations and is against the sovereignty facilitate the independence of Namibia on the basis cans; we a of peoples. The use of force in relations between of Security Council resolution 435 (1978), without peace. Ou: States, the permanence of colonialism, racism and extraneous considerations. overcame apartheid in the southern part of the African conti defeated tl nent and the existence of various centres of tension and at Cui 15. Four years after the adoption of Security Coun other destr that we in the third world know can be attributed cil resolution 435 (1978), in a declaration of 4 only to the military strength that some Western within this February 1982 signed by the Ministers for Foreign placing on countries accord the racist regime of Pretoria and the Affairs of Cuba and Angola, Angola published the Zionist regime of Israel. honestly cc conditions that would contribute to a negotiated contribute solution of the conflict in southern Africa. standing re 11. In fact, the aggressive policy of the apartheid The place regime and the proven acquisition by that regime of 16. On 19 March and 17 November 1984 a declara considerati< the technological capacity for the production of its tion, signed by Presidents Jose Eduardo dos Santos always be i own nuciear weapons constitute a threat to the and Fidel Castro, and a platform for general negotia new order countries of southern Africa and to international tions for peace in Angola and the independence of peace and security.

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