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165 2243rd meeting-2S September 1974

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tpe competence of our existing intern~tjonal ,instiptions, as we work them today. The kmd of international order needed to cope successfully with tliese problems demands an institutional structure far better organized and far better disciplined than that which we now have. 57. This poses great problems for the world's nations: for the super-Powers, which will find it difficult to accept any constraint on the freedom of action which their potential for destruction has hitherto given them; for the former colonial Powers, which cannot find it easy to adapt to the loss of their ancient privileges; but also for the new States, those like my own, with half a century of independence behind them as well as those which have secured their sovereign freedom only within the past decade or two. For all of us newer States the acceptance of constraints on our individual freedom of action in the interest of stability, and even of the survival of the world, must be somewhat irksome coming within decades, or even only within years, after we have achieved our long-sought independence.
 * well as to their Governments, seems to' be beyond

58. No country can, however, escape from the constraints imposed by the situation that faces the world today. In southern Africa, in the Middle East, in Cyprus and in Northern Ireland, to name but four parts of the world, there are dangerous situations, each of which owes its potentially or actually explosive character to the world's too read y acceptance of past festering injustices-a failing to which the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Mr. Callaghan, referred in the course of his address yesterday f)240th meeting ]-and to the failure of one or other party to these disputes to face up to the inherent instability of a situation that momentarily may have seemed to favour their interests. 59. In Cyprus an inherently unstable situation was made even more dangerous by the emergence in Greece of a military dictatorship which was far too readily tolerated, and even aided, by some members of the world community. When that regime eventually succumbed to adventurism in Cyprus, the uneasy balance in that island foundered, bringing misery and death to the Cypriot community, Greek and Turk alike.

60. The disproportionate response by Turkey to the events precipitated by the coup in Cyprus has brought in its train tragic hardship and dislocation to the Cypriot population and a threat to the sovereignty and independence of Cyprus as a State. We trust that negotiations will permit the speedy and safe return to their homes of all those, from both communities, who have been uprooted, as well as the full restoration to Cyprus of its. right to sovereignty and independence. 61. The course of events in Cyprus has not made the task entrusted to the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus any easier, and we share the sorrow of those countries whose soldiers have died under the flag of the United Nations in the cause of peace in the island. We also wish to pay homage to the devoted and unflagging personal efforts of the Secretary-General, Mr. Waldheim, to bring communal leaders of Cyprus together in a dialogue of peace.

165

62. It is our earnest hope that from the tragic drama of Cyprus in recent months, the participants-and the rest of the world too-may learn that attempts to resolve conflicts of communal rights by forceful means not only can bring greater hardship to the communities in whose name the actions were taken, but can also damage the international machinery available under the Charter for the solution of such problems and can undermine the principle that lies at the heart of the Charter itself-the sovereign equality of States. 63. In the Middle East, the unwillingness for so long of Arab States to recognize the right of Israel to exist and the reluctance in turn by Israel to recognize and work towards a resolution of the problem of the Palestinians have together contributed to instability, and thus to repeated armed conflict. 64. In southern Africa the same danger of confrontation persists. Happily, as I noted earlier, the emergence of a democratic Government in. Portugal is helping to resolve this problem peacefully in several of the Territories involved; but these developments serve only to stress the urgency of a movement towards a solution in the rest of southern Africa, which has been suffering from the intransigence of its white minority regimes and from their shortsighted determination to perpetuate injustice in defence of a perverted concept of "civilization". 65. Within the past couple of days there have been reports from South Africa that the Government of that country may be about to announce a significant change in its policy with respect to Namibia. My delegation hopes that those reports are well founded, not merely for the sake of the Narnibian people, whose welfare in the future is the special responsibility of this Organization, but also in the hope that such a development might mark a first step by the Government of South Africa away from its past policies which have cut it off from the rest of the world. 66. We in Ireland have also suffered in our turn from a failure on the part of those who had the authority to do so to tackle in good time the problem of injustice to the important nationalist minority in Northern Ireland. The explosive situation which inevitably developed from this failure burst into open conflict in 1969. This conflict increased fears on all sides, and even though many of the long-standing injustices were gradually rectified, self-righteous and ruthless men-the members of the illegal Irish Republican Army-were able to exploit the situation by claiming to act as defenders of a threatened minority. Their ruthlessness in the years that followed provoked from paramilitary groups amongst the majority indiscriminate retaliation against innocent members of the minority and the consequent cycle of violence 'has been compounded by cases of lack of judgement or lack of discipline on the part of security forces trying to cope with the situation. In an atmosphere where all live in fear of violence from anyone of several sources, reason cannot easily prevail nor moderate policies gain the widespread support they need to bring a term to the crisis racking the Northern Ireland community. 67. The aim of my Government is, by initiating constructive policies and by rejecting the pursuit