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General Assembly-Twenty-ninth Session-Plenary'Meetings

and of my delegation, and on my own behalf, to Mr. Bouteflika on his election to the presidency of the twenty-ninth. session of the General Assembly. Mr. Bouteflika's distinguished gifts as a statesman and his prudent strength as a young diplomat assure us that he will fulfil his duties with skill and intelligence. 214. To his no less illustrious predecessor, Mr. Leopoldo Benites, I wish to extend, through our President, the expression of our deepest appreciation for the wise and effective manner in which he con" ducted the work of the General Assembly during the last two sessions. It brought great credit to his country, Ecuador, and to all of our Latin America. 215. I wish also to ask that our greetings be conveyed to the Secretary-General, Mr. Waldheim. We have followed with interest all he has done for the cause of peace and co-operation among peoples, and his efforts to maintain the Organization at the service of the lofty interests of mankind. 216. The disaster that recently struck our sister Republic of Honduras, which also to a lesser degree struck Guatemala and my own country, prompt me to give public expression of our condolences to the delegation of Honduras. The thousands of victims who lost their lives in the fury of the hurricane, the tens of thousands left homeless, and the material damages that have already been estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, are for Honduras a most grave and distressing blow that can have very serious repercussions in the life of that Republic in the future. 217. In the area of Central America, there Can be no country which appreciates better than Nicaragua the gravity of the natural disaster that our sister Republic of Honduras has suffered, inasmuch as in 1972 an earthquake destroyed our capital city, causing great loss of life and material damage and leaving behind it problems which even today we are still trying stubbornly to overcome. We have had two years of constant work by the National Emergency Committee and of exemplary dedication on the part of the present President-Elect of Nicaragua, General Anastasio Sornoza Debayle, But in spite of everything and in spite of the efforts being made day after day by the people of Nicaragua to overcome such painful realities, the mark of the tragedy still remains present in the economic and social life of our people. I

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218. In keeping with the fraternal bonds that unite the peoples of Honduras and Nicaragua, the Government and the people of my country have mobilized their efforts-while attending at the same time to those parts of our own country that were affected by the hurricane-to bring our modest but relatively generous assistance to our brothers in Honduras. And in that task of assistance several heroic Nicaraguans have given their lives.

219. This new natural disaster that has struck the area of Central America brings out the special importance of the allocation to the Second Committee of the item entitled .. Assistance in cases of natural disaster and other disaster situations" [agenda item 60], the humanitarian aspects of which could be considered by the Third Committee during its

consideration of item 12. Unfortunately, it would seem that the international community has failed adequately to understand the fact that the problem of natural disasters cannot continue to be treated as one involving only mercy and charity. 220. The concentration and the ever more rapid growth of population, the greater areas being brought under cultivation and incorporated in the economic life of communities, and the complexity of the economic and social system all mean that natural disasters produce massive problems which, through the disturbances and disruptions they create, affect not only the economic aspects but also the social, political and institutional aspects of national life. 221. Here we should like to refer to the third resolution adopted by the Committee of the Whole of the Economic Commission for Latin America." It was adopted at the seventh extraordinary session to consider what action should be taken to help Nicaragua after the 1972 earthquake. It recommended the preparation of a regional plan for Latin America that would promote effective and orderly action in dealing with the disruptive effects, over the short term 'and medium term, of natural disasters. 222. Those countries which are situated along the so-called volcanic chain of the Pacific, particularly those countries of lesser economic and social development, and those with coasts on the Indian Ocean and in the Caribbean, as well as the countries of the Sahel, have been hit by an awesome number of natural catastrophes and have shown great vulnerability to the social and economic effects of these disasters. 223. The delegation of Nicaragua, with conviction born of our own distressing experience. cannot be satisfied with mere expressions of condolences for Honduras; urgent problems of a humanitarian nature must be tackled. I wish today to appeal to the international community, and particularly to Latin America, to confront the problems of Honduras and promote a broad programme of reconstruction and development for the vast area affected; and I have instructed my delegation to remain open to whatever initiatives may be proposed to this end. 224. We also hope that the study of the item on natural disasters allocated to the Second Committee will lead to conclusions and positive action going beyond the mere passing expression of humanitarian sentiment. 225. There is another problem of ominous dimensions and serious consequences that directly afflicts societies whose land has been convulsed in the way described, although, perhaps, this problem is not limited only to them. I am referring to hunger, not to problems of nutrition, which can be an offshoot of affluence. I am speaking of the physical reality of eating to survive-the elementary problem of existing and not the qualitative problem of living humanely. Indeed, hunger is a daily reality for one fifth of the population of the world. 226. The secretariat of the World Food Conference has ",cognized that the present food crisis is the mosf serious that mankind has faced in the past 40 vears. The immediate effects of this crisis have been shortages and higher prices of all food-

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