YouSaid · the spoken record

Legwaila

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS LEGWAILA

lines on the record: 74
first: 1981-09-24
most recent: 1994-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“While we sincerely appreciate and welcome concrete pledges made at the special session, some of which we know will be made good, it is our studied conclusion, nevertheless, that the international community at large has remained generally indifferent to our plight. And this does not help the reforms upon which we have embarked. We are somewhat disappointed also that the recent seventh special session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) held in Geneva has not met our expectations. The problems of resource flows, money and finance, commodities, international trade, and the least developed countries were basically hedged and thus left without any fundamental and permanent solutions.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“In southern Africa, it is already clear that cereal harvests have not been good this year, owing partly to these pests and also to persistent drought and destabilization - destabilization caused by another pestilence, namely that of apartheid. The fact is that Africa has done its very best to implement the Priority Programme. Painful structural reforms have been initiated in a bold attempt to rehabilitate and revitalize the economies of the continent in response to the Programme and the urgings of the international community. There is more than enough evidence of that a fact to which ECA can attest, and what is lacking is a decisive response on the part of the international community.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“Out of these figures, the Economic Commission for Africa (EGA) estimates that the African region will experience a growth rate of between 2 and 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product. The Commission has been quick to point out, however, that even these figures may have to be revised downwards, given the fact that in a number of African countries the output of cereal and agricultural products is threatened by new dangers. In spite of the good rains that have fallen in some parts of Africa, locusts and grasshoppers are threatening crop harvests in East and southern Africa, the Sahel and some parts of West Africa.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“Add to this litany of economic woes persistent natural calamities ranging from drought, desertification and cyclones to crop pests and the population explosion, as well as man-made ones, such as civil wars and destabilization: and one has a continent on the verge of economic collapse. The World Bank estimates that during 1986 the economies of developing countries grew by only 4.2 per cent of gross domestic product. This was hardly enough to cope with the population growth rate, which is around 3.5 per cent in a number of these countries. African economies grew by only 1.2 per cent in 1986. The prospects for this year are such that for developing countries the overall growth would hardly average between 3 and 4 per cent of gross domestic product.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“The unity of purpose demonstrated at that historic session has not been vindicated. Although Africa has demonstrably tried to initiate the reforms called for by the Programme, the international economic environment has, on the other hand, deteriorated sharply since last year, making nonsense of some of the reforms we have undertaken. The economically ravaged continent has enjoyed no relief. Prices of primary commodities from which African countries derive most of their foreign exchange remain terribly depressed, the debt burden has become unbearable, interests rates are still sky-high, exchange rates of major currencies have remained volatile, while protectionist tendencies are rearing their ugly heads and multilateral official development assistance has been reduced.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“My delegation salutes him and his staff at the end of another year of their dedicated service on behalf of us all. As the year 1987 draws to a close, there is mounting evidence that the international economic situation will not be much different from that of last year. The overall environment still presents blurred images and conflicting visions. Most economic observers agree that growth, even in the industrialized countries, remains sluggish and volatile. For the developing countries, this means that the spectre of woes that has haunted their economies in recent years, is still present. But for Africa, which in solidarity with the international community adopted the African Priority Programme for Economic Recovery (1986-1990) in this Assembly last year, the situation is particularly serious.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“It was his tireless efforts and patient negotiating skills that brought about bold compromises on the difficult question of restructuring the United Nations system, a process that we hope is genuinely aimed at revitalizing the delivery system of the United Nations rather than at crippling the Organization. The Assembly will miss his authoritative gavel but it can take comfort in the fact that his successor is a man of no less sound diplomatic skill and experience. Our Secretary-General, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, continues to be a true successor of the great men of letters and impeccable credentials who have come to our Organization to serve their fellow men. His annual reports are invaluable tools in our work. We must heed his advice on what needs to be done to deal with the intractable problems confronting us.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“Mr. President, your great country, the German Democratic Republic, and your region of Eastern Europe, have done the international community great honour in making available to it the services of such an outstanding internationalist as you are. We are confident that your stewardship will be rewarded with Important achievements for our Organization. As a member of the General Committee, my delegation will give you its unstinting support as you carry out your tasks. I also congratulate my namesake, Mr, Joseph Reed, on the new career upon which he has now entered. What can we say about your predecessor, Mr. Humayun Rasheed Choudhury.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“Vietnamese troops have no right to be there and must withdraw to Viet Nam, where they belong. 173. My delegation has no illusions that when we meet here at the thirty-seventh session some of the items we are dealing with this year might not be on the agenda of that session. Our earnest hope is that next year the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea will conclude its work and that global negotiations on international economic cooperation will have been launched and will have made some progress. Otherwise, the struggle for the creation of a safer, saner and more just world must continue.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“On the question of Korea, we believe it is only fair and just that we should leave the two parts of the divided country alone to solve, in peace and without any external interference of any kind, the problem of reunification. Both Koreas want reunification; it is only in the method of achieving the objective that the two sides may differ. The important thing, however, is that we should leave them alone to resolve their differences. 171. Asia has its own problems. Afghanistan is still where it was when we met here last year. Soviet troops are still in the country in spite of our urgings that they be withdrawn. We insist that they be withdrawn so that the people of Afghanistan can decide on their own system of government. 172. Kampuchea also remains a tormented country.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“There can be no peace in the Middle East as long as Israel believes that its survival in that area depends entirely on its military might. The destruction of Iraq's nuclear reactor does not in any way enhance the prospects for peace in the Middle East, nor does it ensure the survival of Israel. The systematic bombing of Lebanon by Israel can only accelerate the dangerous drift towards a bloody regional confrontation in the Middle East. 169. Yes, we remain committed to the survival of the State of Israel, but only within its pre-1967 boundaries. We also, with equal tenacity, remain committed to the struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom. It has every right to have a country it can truly call its own. 170.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“No, apartheid is inimical to the survival of the white man in South Africa. By refusing to recognize the aspirations of black South Africans, by depriving the black majority of its heritage, the citizenship of its own country, white South Africans have jeopardized their own survival in South Africa. 167. So have the people of Israel in the Middle East; they seem to have vowed never to live in peace with their neighbors, whose lands Israel has forcibly added to its own and continues to occupy in arrogant defiance of United Nations decisions. There can be no peace in the Middle East so long as Israel refuses not only to end its occupation of Arab lands, but also and this is crucial to recognize the right of the people of Palestine to live as a free nation in its own independent sovereign State. 168.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“The liberation of Namibia is, of course, inextricably bound up with the struggle against the pernicious ideology of apartheid in South Africa, where a stubborn white minority regime has elected to resist with all the power at its disposal every effort aimed at persuading it to abandon the suicidal course on which it set itself 33 years ago. The past four years have witnessed frantic attempts by the South African regime to convince the world that the white man cannot survive in South Africa without institutionalized racism. In other words, we are told that for the white man to survive in South Africa there must be racial discrimination in the country; blacks and whites must have separate toilets, separate bars, separate schools, separate residential areas and, indeed, separate cemeteries. 166.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“Southern Africa is in a state of turmoil because South Africa has decided to destabilize any country in the area which refuses to be cowed into submission in the struggle against apartheid and Pretoria's illegal occupation of Namibia. 164. And yet all these provocations have not deterred and will not deter us from pursuing the cause of peace in Namibia as far as we possibly can. There can be a solution to the Namibian problem and, indeed, the plan exists to produce such a solution. The front-line States, Africa and SWAPO are more than ready to cooperate with the five Western Powers and the United Nations in the implementation of resolution 435 (1978) and thus end once and for all the sad Namibian saga. 165.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“On the contrary, they are in Angola precisely because, using Namibia as a military base, South Africa invaded Angola in 1975 and has continued to violate the territorial integrity of that country with impunity. Angola had every right to seek assistance from its friends and will continue to exercise that right so long as South African acts of aggression continue. 163. South Africa has itself to blame for the political pollution in southern Africa. Angola is what it is because of the abortive attempt by South Africa in 1975 to destroy that country at birth. Namibia is in the mess it is in because for more than 60 years South Africa has used the Territory as if it were part of South Africa, in blatant defiance of the decisions of both the League of Nations and the United Nations.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“South Africa has been very much encouraged by Washington's popular song about the presence of Cubans and Russians in Angola. The reported capture by South African terrorist troops of one Russian in southern Angola and the discovery of one bottle of vodka in the house he is alleged to have occupied seem to have been received well in the capitals of the Western world. Frantic attempts are now being made to blame Angola for acts committed by South Africa. Efforts are being* made to blame the Soviet Union and Cuba for acts of aggression committed by SoOth Africa. 162. Neither the Cubans nor the Russians in Angola have ever posed a threat to the security or stability of southern Africa.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“Twelve days later we are still in a state of anticipation because what transpired at the meeting on 24 September remains shrouded in mystery. We have not lost hope, but there is up to now nothing to encourage us in our stubborn hopefulness. The onus is on the Five Powers to deliver South Africa and there is very little time in which to do so. The road of silent agony is by no means endless. 160. The stalemate in the Namibian negotiations has created a dangerous situation in our area. The recent invasion of Angola by South Africa, using Namibia as a launching pad, has not only betrayed Pretoria's sinister intentions vis-a-vis the whole situation in southern Africa; it has also in no small measure showed how close the area is to becoming a cockpit of superPower confrontation. 161.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“They ought to realize that the permissiveness with which they have treated South Africa thus far can only stiffen that country's resolve to continue to gnaw at the very soul of Security Council resolution 435 (1978) until the resolution resembles some Bantustan plan. South Africa must be compelled to show good faith if SWAPO is to be expected to continue to be as reasonable as it has always been. 159. There has been a great deal of speculation in the media in the past few weeks about the imminence of a breakthrough in the stalemate that has characterized the period since the Geneva pre-implementation meeting. On 24 September, the five Western Powers met here in New York in an atmosphere of heightened expectation.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“There is still a great deal of goodwill among those who have waited so long for their freedom. The front-line States and Africa as a whole have invested a great deal of hope in the United Nations plan, not out of fear of the alternative path to Namibia's freedom but as a demonstration of our abiding faith in peaceful change and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. 158. It would be unfortunate, therefore, if our goodwill and our good faith were to be mistaken for capitulation or weakness. The five Western Powers, in particular, which labored so hard three years ago to produce the United Nations plan, ought to realize that within their grasp lies a golden opportunity to play an historic role in the peaceful liberation of Namibia before it is too late.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“Inevitably, the escalation of the cold war has heightened tension all over the world, particularly in areas of endemic conflict such as southern Africa. That turbulent region of our continent has in recent months become a viciously contested area for contending seekers after geopolitical spheres of influence and may yet provide the spark to start the conflagration we have always feared and tried to avoid. 157. The problems of southern Africa are not insoluble. A racial conflagration is not necessarily inevitable in that area. For Namibia we have a plan which has been accepted by the parties concerned and endorsed by the Security Council in resolution 435 (1978) and which must be implemented without any further delay if the patience of the oppressed is not to run out.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“Old issues still crowd the agenda of every session of the Assembly. The world in which we live, 36 years after the founding of the United Nations,' continues to be poised precariously on an increasingly fading borderline between peace and war, between order and chaos, between sanity and madness. The cold war between the East and the West has been given a new lease of life and is threatening to heat up as the two superPowers resume their deadly and wasteful competition for nuclear arms superiority. Billions of dollars are being wasted on a suicidal arms race at the end of which there will certainly be no winner. The superPowers already have in their possession a lethal arsenal more than sufficient to destroy each other and the rest of us many times over. 156.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“Gathered here today, as in the past, are nations big and small, rich and poor, weak and strong, brought together by their common desire and determination to nurture and preserve their collective freedom, independence and security under the protective umbrella of the United Nations. Of necessity, every year scores of presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers come on a pilgrimage to this meeting-place of nations to speak of peace and the brotherhood of man. This is as it should be, for the United Nations was founded precisely for the sole purpose of maintaining peace and security and fostering the growth of a spirit of mutual understanding among nations in a world scarred by two wars in this century alone. 155. And yet a quick glance at the agenda will reveal that the foundations of peace are as weak as ever.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“Every addition to the membership of this family of nations represents to us an additional nail in the coffin of colonialism. 152. We are equally proud to welcome to independence and freedom the new State of Belize, which came into being only 16 days ago. The people of Belize are free at last and we all have every reason to rejoice: We wish them a very happy future. 153. Botswana continues to attach great importance to the annual sessions of this great assembly of nations. There is, in our view, some virtue in the ritual of speech making, in the festival of words in which we engage every year, for we know only too well that when nations stop talking they start fighting. 154.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)
“148. It is my privilege, Sir, to proffer my delegation's sincere congratulations on your elevation to the presidency of the thirty-sixth session of the General Assembly. We fully share the conviction repeatedly expressed by those who have spoken before us that under your eminent stewardship this session will undoubtedly be crowned with success. 149. We take off our hats to your equally illustrious predecessor for the brilliant manner in which he steered the deliberations of the thirty-fifth session. May he continue ,to shine in his new endeavors. 150. We are also in no small measure beholden to the SecretaryGeneral, who has selflessly continued to spend sleepless nights and restless days in the service of mankind. 151. It is with great pride and a sense of achievement that we welcome to our midst the Republic of Vanuatu.”
1981-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 36 (1981)