U.N. Address: Troop Cuts, Afghanistan, Rights

Here are excerpts of the speech by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev at the United Nations on Wednesday focusing on the specific proposals made by the Soviet leader. The English-language text was made available by the Soviet Mission.

Conventional arms: Today, I can report to you that the Soviet Union has taken a decision to reduce its armed forces.

Within the next two years their numerical strength will be reduced by 500,000 troops. The numbers of conventional armaments will also be substantially reduced. This will be done unilaterally, without relation to the talks on the mandate of the Vienna meeting.

By agreement with our Warsaw Treaty allies, we have decided to withdraw by 1991 six tank divisions from the GDR (East Germany), Czechoslovakia and Hungary, and to disband them.

Assault landing troops and several other formations and units, including assault crossing units with their weapons and combat equipment, will also be withdrawn from the groups of Soviet forces stationed in those countries.

Soviet forces stationed in those countries will be reduced by 50,000 and their armaments by 5,000 tanks.

All Soviet divisions remaining, for the time being, in the territory of our allies are being reorganized. Their structure will be different from what it is now; after a major cutback of their tanks, it will become clearly defensive.

At the same time, we shall reduce the numerical strength of the armed forces and the numbers of armaments stationed in the European part of the U.S.S.R.

In total, Soviet armed forces in this part of our countries and in the territories of our European allies will be reduced by 10,000 tanks, 8,500 artillery systems and 800 combat aircraft.

Over these two years we intend to reduce significantly our armed forces in the Asian part of our country, too. By agreement with the government of the Mongolian People’s Republic, a major portion of Soviet troops temporarily stationed there will return home.

Afghanistan: The Geneva accords, whose fundamental and practical significance has been praised throughout the world, provided a possibility for completing the process of settlement even before the end of this year. That did not happen.

This unfortunate fact reminds us again of the political, legal and moral significance of the Roman maxim: Pacta sunt servanda! --Treaties must be observed!

I don’t want to use this rostrum for recriminations against anyone. But it is our view that, within the competence of the United Nations, the General Assembly resolution adopted last November could be supplemented by some specific measures.

In the words of that resolution, for the urgent achievement of a comprehensive solution by the Afghans themselves of the question of a broad-based government, the following should be undertaken:

-- A complete cease-fire, effective every where as of Jan. 1, 1989, and the cessation of all offensive operations or shellings, with the opposing Afghan groups retaining, for the duration of negotiations, all territories under their control.

-- Linked to that, stopping as of the same date any supplies of arms to all belligerents.

-- For the period of establishing a broad-based government, as provided in the General Assembly resolution, sending to Kabul and other strategic centers of the country a contingent of United Nations peacekeeping forces.

-- We also request the secretary general to facilitate early implementation of the idea of holding an international conference on the neutrality and demilitarization of Afghanistan.

We shall continue most actively to assist in healing the wounds of the war and are preparedto cooperate in this endeavor both with the United Nations and on a bilateral basis.

We support the proposal to create under the auspices of the United Nations a voluntary international Peace Corps to assist in the revival of Afghanistan.

Human rights: Soviet democracy will be placed on a solid, normative base. I am referring, in particular, to laws on the freedom of conscience, glasnost , public associations and organizations and many others.

In places of confinement there are no persons convicted for their political or religious beliefs. Additional guarantees are to be included in the new draft laws that rule out any form of persecution on those grounds.

Naturally this does not apply to those who committed actual criminal offenses or state crimes such as espionage, sabotage, terrorism, whatever their political or ideological beliefs.

The problem of exit from and entry to our country, including the question of leaving it for family reunification, is being dealt with in a humane spirit. As you know, one of the reasons for refusal to leave is a person’s knowledge of secrets. Strictly warranted time limitations on the secrecy rule will now be applied. Every person seeking employment at certain agencies or enterprises will be informed of this rule. In case of disputes, there is a right of appeal under the law. This removes from the agenda the problem of the so-called refuseniks.

We intend to expand the Soviet Union’s participation in the United Nations and CSCE (Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe) human rights monitoring arrangements.

We regard as part of the Helsinki process the cessation of jamming of all foreign radio broadcasts beamed at the Soviet Union.

Overall, this is our credo. Political problems must be solved only by political means; human problems, only in a humane way.

International debt: The Soviet Union is prepared to institute a lengthy moratorium of up to 100 years on debt servicing by the least developed countries, and in quite a few cases to write off the debt altogether.

As regards other developing countries, we invite you to consider the following:

-- Limiting their official debt-servicing payments depending on the economic performance of each or granting them a long period of deferral in the repayment of a major portion.

-- Supporting the appeal of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development for reducing debts owed to commercial banks.

-- Guaranteeing government support for market arrangements to assist in Third World debt settlement.

Environment: Let us also think about setting up within the framework of the United Nations a center for emergency environmental assistance. Its function would be to promptly send international groups of experts to areas with badly deteriorating environments.

The Soviet Union is also ready to cooperate in establishing an international space laboratory or manned orbital station designed exclusively for monitoring the state of the environment.

Space exploration: In the general area of space exploration, the outlines of a future space industry are becoming increasingly clear.

The position of the Soviet Union is well known: Activities in outer space must rule out the appearance of weapons there. Here again, there has to be a legal base. The groundwork for it--the provisions of the 1967 treaty and other agreements--is already in place.

However, there is already a strongly felt need to develop an all-embracing regime for peaceful work in outer space. The verification of compliance with that regime would be entrusted to a World Space Organization. We have put forward our proposal to establish it on more than one occasion. We are prepared to incorporate within its system our Krasnoyarsk radar station. A decision has already been taken to place that radar under the authorities of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences.