YouSaid · the spoken record

Nsekalije

lines on the record: 122
first: 1973-09-24
most recent: 1978-09-24
sittings or episodes: 4
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

“After six days of war which led to the present situation, six years of "no war, no peace" have elapsed. Rwanda recommends strong measures to arrive at a climate of peace in that area and is profoundly convinced that the only valid solution to that conflict, which has thrown so many families into mourning and created so many orphans, lies in the integral application of Security Council resolution 242(1967) and in sincere negotiations among the parties concerned. My country condemns categorically all annexation of territory by force, by whatever Power. 128. If peace has not yet entirely come to Indo-China, Rwanda is however gratified at the Paris agreements which crowned the laborious negotiations begun there and put an end to a long and cruel war in Viet-Nam.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“It is useful to recall, as was so rightly said by Mao Tse-tung: "In the fight for complete liberation, the oppressed peoples rely first of all on their own struggle and then, and only then, on international assistance. The people who have triumphed in their own revolution should help those still struggling for liberation". In sacrificing themselves for their people the vanguard of the liberation movements will have found death for a noble cause. It is true that men are mortal, but the death of African martyrs for the liberation of their peoples carries more weight than the highest of mountains. 126. It is high time that the international community should find ways and means of improving the explosive situation in southern Africa, but the situation is no better in the Middle East. 127.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“It is also regrettable that certain States Members of this Organization, among them the NATO group, should fail to comply with the complete embargo placed on the supply of weapons to those three countries, thus sanctioning the immoral causes for whose defence those weapons are destined. 125. The Governments of Pretoria, Salisbury and Lisbon attempt to justify their monstrous crimes by claiming that they are fighting against subversion and insurrection. In so doing, they forget that, as so rightly was said by Condorcet: "Insurrection is the last resort of oppressed peoples; it is a sacred duty when there is no other means of saving oneself'.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“In South Africa -the authorities of Pretoria have relegated to second place the imperatives of universal morality by establishing racism and apartheid as the religion of the State. In Namibia, the same Government of Pretoria continues to exercise an unlawful authority, illegitimate and illegal because that Territory has been repeatedly declared to have been placed under the authority of the United Nations and it is the right of that people to march towards self-determination and independence. 124. The sad triple alliance between Lisbon, Salisbury and Pretoria continues scornfully to trample underfoot the relevant resolutions of the international Organization and to create on the African continent the last vestiges of militant imperialist resistance.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“It is humiliating to see the human condition of the African trampled underfoot on his own African soil. 122. In Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, Portugal brings death and desolation. Recently, the Government of Lisbon became guilty of unprecedented genocide by proceeding to the systematic extermination of peaceful and innocent Mozambican populations because they merely expressed aloud their desire for self-determination. 123. In Southern Rhodesia, Ian Smith has established a pseudo-government under the complacent eye of the United Kingdom, which in the eyes of my Government is solely and fully responsible for the situation prevailing in that African territory.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“To bring back peace and internal unity, to re-establish good relations with neighbouring and sisterly States, to strengthen understanding and economic and social co-operation with all nations, to co-operate with the international organizations, to support the just and legitimate struggle of the national liberation movements, this is the challenge of the new Rwandese Republic. 120. But while Rwanda wants peace and proclaims respect for the rights and fundamental freedoms of its people, it wants other people to enjoy the same rights and freedoms. 121. Members are no doubt aware of our grave concern at the anachronistic and explosive situation prevailing in southern Africa, where the law of the jungle and that of the strongest have replaced the law of nature, which, in fact, compels men to live together in peace.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Corruption and intrigue in the entourage of the old leader fatally would lead to the fall of that government and the birth of a new generation desirous of saving the nation and consolidating the peace and unity of the country. The national forces of security, under the peaceful guidance of the valiant leader, Major-General Habyarimana Juvenal, President of the Republic and Chairman of the Committee for Peace and National Unity, took the fate of the country into their own hands without bloodshed and proclaimed the advent of the Second Republic.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Inspired by a reverential fear of him, they see in him every perfection, or they attribute perfection to him so that they will not have to admit that they were subjected by perfectly ordinary means." While this was the general attitude of the average citizen, there were many enlightened men in the retinue of the Prince who were aware of the dictum of Pascal: "To say the truth is useful to the person one says it to, but disadvantageous to whoever speaks it because it earns him hatred; those who live with princes love their interest better than the prince they serve; and they will not give him anything if it is harmful to themselves." As Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time." 119.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The person who incarnated the State, short of being a god, had become a true myth. As was said by an Arab philosopher, Ibn Khaldun: "Men always regard the man who has subdued and dominated them as a higher being.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The accession of the country to independence, with the weight of the responsibility stemming from and the many needs which a poor country like ours must face up to, very soon stifled the impulse of our best leaders in the past who, lacking the imagination to find the solutions demanded by circumstances, found refuge behind the facile policy of "divide and rule", and division by the cynical promotion of hatred, tribal and racial struggles, regional divisions elevated to the rank of doctrine and by mobilizing national public opinion against the menacing spectre of an imaginary enemy, in this case the neighbouring sister States of Uganda and Burundi. Such an attitude ran counter to the very principles of this Organization and of the Organization of African Unity.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The events of 5 July 1973 were ineluctably inscribed in the very logic of affairs, for the famous words of Georges Clemenceau had found their field of application: "It is absolutely impossible for a man in power not to yield one day to the forces of disruption. The very best minds sooner or later have to confront circumstances where the advantages of the unknown outweigh the adversities of life's changing fortunes." It is neither the forces of disruption alone, nor the many advantages of the unknown in the adversities of fortune, but also that neo-colonialist conspiracy of destruction and national devastation which decided the position to be taken in such hard circumstances. 118.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“It was precisely to consolidate that national sovereignty, threatened as it was on the inside by a group of leaders who hatched a diabolical plot for the division and devastation of the country, and to ensure for each Rwandan citizen or foreigner living in our country the free exercise of the fundamental freedoms of the human person, that on 5 July 1973, the High Command of the National Army, under its brave and courageous leader, Major-General Habyarimana Juvenal, President of the Republic and Chairman of the Committee for Peace and National Unity, took the major decision to take, the fate of the nation into its hands. 117.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Everyone knows that national sovereignty and the rights of citizens — which are never served on a gold or silver platter but almost always in difficult conditions fraught with suffering and heroic struggle-are also preserved with difficulty, for they are continuously threatened by many enemies, among them imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, the greed of leaders who unscrupulously exploit their people, and by under-development with its sequel of misery, ignorance and disease. 116.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Although it is true that we step into the future with our burden of the past, the Rwanda of today is not the feudal Rwanda explored by Count Goetzen in 1894, nor that colonized country which ceased to be a colony on 1 July 1962 and which was succeeded by the country which, after many changes, is the one I represent today. It is a changed and new Rwanda which seeks jealously to defend the fundamental freedoms of its people, as well as its national sovereignty.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Without allowing ourselves to be blinded by foolish optimism, we must congratulate ourselves on seeing today an ever greater abandonment of the recourse to force in international relations and the birth of a process of appeal to negotiation as a means for settling conflicts, and greater co-operation among States in several areas, especially the economic, cultural and technical areas. This new physiognomy of international relations accounts for an attitude of renewal on the part of Member States which prompts them increasingly to adjust their conduct to the principles laid down in the Charter. 114. It is in accordance with the same principles that Rwanda, for its part, intends to define and apply its policy, both internal and international. 115.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“A cursory glance at the present state of international relations entitles us, happily, to assert that the current session begins in a climate of detente and more resolute co-operation among States. It may be recalled that the climate of understanding-from which certain ulterior motives were not absent-which reigned at the time of the signature of the Charter was followed by a whole series of discouraging events for mankind, dominated mainly by the cold war between the Powers possessing weapons of mass destruction, many hotbeds of tension in the world, and regional wars here and there on almost all continents. 113.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“The preamble shows us that, after the indescribable sufferings engendered by two world wars in the space of one generation, the main concern that dominated the gathering in San Francisco in 1945 was precisely to preserve future generations from other, similar catastrophes, by establishing a structure of peace and collective security founded principally on the spirit of tolerance and good neighbourliness, the sovereign equality of States, non-interference in the internal affairs of other States, unconditional respect for human rights, non-recourse to force, and the peaceful settlement of disputes, as well as international economic and social co-operation. 112.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Each year at the same time the community of nations gathers together to consider its fate: to take stock of the past and to establish its programme for the future. Such an examination, if it is objective, must be placed over and above the elegance of style and language which at times, regrettably, is no more than a mask for ulterior motives, and must be focused closely on the realities of our time. 110. It would be idle for me to repeat here that when we assess the successes and failures of the international Organization, we must first of all convince ourselves that it can be no more than what its Member States wish it to be. In fact, their degree of loyalty to the objectives laid down in the Charter must be the only yardstick to which we can refer to assess its effectiveness. 111.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“Among them we see the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, two States which, we hope, will one day again become one nation, the great and noble German nation, the fatherland not only of Goethe, Beethoven, Kant, Leibnitz, Marx and so many other illustrious persons who have made of Germany one of the greatest centres of culture and civilization, but also the fatherland of Count von Goetzen, that resolute and strong-willed young man who on 2 May 1894 crossed the Kagera upstream from Ruvubu and built a bridge between Rwanda and his own country that still exists. The admission to our Organization of that Germany, which is today reconciled with itself and has recovered its grandeur and to which we are tied by so many historic links and fruitful co-operation, gives us the greatest pleasure and satisfaction. 109.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“My delegation wishes at the same time to reiterate its high appreciation and renew its full support to the Secretary-General of our Organization, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, whose outstanding courage and dynamism combined with his unshakable faith in this Organization will make of it, we are convinced, a more effective instrument for safeguarding international peace and security, so dear to us all. 107. Rwanda, moreover, is very happy to extend a very warm welcome into the concert of nations to the new Member States. 108.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“In addition to greeting you, my delegation wishes to greet Ecuador, that noble country of which you are a worthy son, a country that is honoured by a very old humanist tradition, like the rest of the Latin American hemisphere, of which it is a part and which shares with our African continent the vibrant accents of joie de vivre, of warm welcome and hospitality as well as of faith in the future and the will to action. 105. Mr. Stanislaw Trepczynski rendered great service to the international Organization by the remarkable manner in which he presided over the twenty-seventh session of the General Assembly. His sense of equity, his absolute respect for divergent opinions, his desire for efficiency and his lofty views have won him the esteem of us all. 106.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)
“104. Sir, your election to the presidency of the twenty-eighth session of the General Assembly constitutes a resounding tribute to your brilliant qualities as an enlightened politician and diplomat in whom the sense of duty yields nothing to that of compromise and moderation. Such qualities, combined with long experience in. international affairs, are guarantees of the full success that will crown the work of the present session under your presidency.”
1973-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 28 (1973)