Address To The Belgrade Conference(excerpts)


Racial Discrimination

"The spectre of racial discrimination which has for so long cast its
dark and evil shadow over much of this globe is slowly disappearing.
Men are coming increasingly to be judged by their talents and
abilities rather than by the less meaningful and far more superficial
standards of race and religion. But there yet remain those who, in
their bigotry and ignorance, resist this flooding tide, and it is against
these that our efforts must be directed. The struggle to win for our
brothers in South Africa that status as free men, free to stand, heads
high, among free men as equals, which so many millions of Africans
and Asians have attained but yesterday, goes on. our duty is not
discharged, our course is not run, our victory not won so long as
apartheid, the legitimized policy of the Government of the Union of
South Africa, prevails in any area of the world.

In South Africa, an attempt has been made to legislate the inequality
of the races. This attempt is doomed to failure. We here are all
pledged not to pause in this strife until its emptiness and mockery
are revealed for all to see and those who have used it for their own
purposes have abjured this doctrine which is an insult to all men and
to Almighty God in Whose image we are created. But, at the same time,
let us not bemuse ourselves with the notion that it is any more possible
to legislate equality, for these matters concern attitudes and values
over which intellect sadly exercises but little control. Let us not recoil
in hatred against those who, even while protecting their freedom from
bias and prejudice, reveal by their actions that the poison of
discrimination has left its lasting effects, and by this reaction reveal
that we, no less than they, are prey to unreasoning emotion, that we,
no less than they, are susceptible to that virus which is called intolerance.

Apartheid Must Be Discredited

The African states have already imposed direct sanctions in the
economic and diplomatic fields in an attempt to influence the policies
of South Africa and to convince the South African leaders that it is in
no sense in their interest any longer to adhere to this policy. We should,
during this Confcrence, consider if there are not additional measures
which we may adopt to speed the inevitable day when the policy of
racial discrimination and the principle of apartheid are discredited and
abandoned.

But let us take pride in the fact that as free men we attack and abhor
racial discrimination on principle, wherever it is found and in whatever
guise. We can, in addition to the economic pressures of which we
dispose, bring our moral weight to bear and rally world opinion to our
cause by revealing the brutality, the inhumanity, the inherent viciousness
and evil represented by this policy.

It is only natural for man to strive towards a better life, to wish to educate
his children while he himself was uneducated, to desire to shelter and
clothe them while he himself was naked and scourged by the elements,
to strive to spare them from the crude diseases by which he himself was
ravaged. But when these ends are realized at the expense of others, at
the cost of their degradation and poverty, these desires, which are not
intrinsically immoral or pernicious in themselves, must be frustrated, and
the means by which these otherwise legitimate ends are sought to be
attained must be scorned and shunned.

We ourselves, the Non-Aligned Nations of the world, seek no less than
others these same objectives. And it is not by mere chance that we also
count among our number the great majority of the underdeveloped nations
of the world, for not until the direction and determination of man's fate is
firmly within his own grasp can he devote the totality of his strength to his
own good..."


                                                  H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I