A/37/PV.65 General Assembly

I invite the General Assembly's attention first to the third report of the General Com- mittee [A/37/250/Add.2] concerning the agenda of the current session. 2. In paragraph 1 (a) and (b) the General Committee recommends the inclusion in the agenda of an addi- tional ite~ entitled ••Observance of the quincentenary of the dIscovery of America" and its consideration directly in plenary meeting. May I take it that the General Assembly approves that recommendation? It was so decided. 3. The PRESIDENT: In paragraph 2 (a) and (b) the General Committee recommends the inclusion in the agenda of an additional item entitled "Implementation of the resolutions of the United Nations" and its consideration directly in plenary meeting. May I take it that the General Assembly also approves that recommendation? It was so decided.

At the outset I should like on behalf of my delegation to convey our deep sympathy and heartfelt condolences to the delegations ·of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Byelo- russian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on the sad demise of Mr. Leonid Brezhnev, the President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 5. The world has witnessed in many instances how policies of discrimination on grounds of race, creed or * Resumed from the 31st meeting. ** Resumed from the 62nd meeting. NEW YORK colour, besides being unethical and tyrannical in them- selves, can bear the seeds of war. Therefore, 37 years ago, when the founding fathers of the United Nations took a pledge to save succeeding generations from the scourge <?fwar, they unmistakably reflected in the very first ArtIcle of the Charter of the United Nations mankind's firm faith in fundamental human rights and respect for the dignity and worth of human per- sons. This principle of the inalienable rights of all members of the human family found its subsequent expression in yet another historic document of the United Nations, namely, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 6. The policies of apartheid of the Government of South Airica, the subject under discussion, clearly represent the extreme antithesis of the values en- shrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The General Assembly has, for the past several years, repeatedly denounced the policy of apartheid of the G?vernment of South Africa as a gross violation of thIS unalterable principle of basic human rights and as a crime against humanity itself. The policy of apart- heid, based as it is on the fallacious notion of the ~uperiori~y. of one race over another, is socially un- Just, polItIcally dangerous and economically pre- posterous. The situation in South Africa as it obtains today is universaliy recognized as a threat to inter- national peace and security and to the development of genuine international co-operation. The racist oppression in South Africa has been the cause of the enormous suffering of its own people. 7. In the course of 30 years over 3 million black people have been reported uprooted from tbeir homes about 13 million Africans have been arrested and 7 million Africans have been deprived of their citizen- ship in their own country, through its policy ofcreating ba?tustans. Over 5,000 people, including women and chIldren, have been held in custody and subjected to brutal torture. In its efforts to stop the march of freedom, the Pretoria regime has waged an undeclared war against the Namibian people and· committed acts of.aggres~ion, subversion and terrorism against the nelgh~ounngStates ofAngola, Lesotho, Mozambique, ZambIa and, recently, Seychelles. Racist South Africa's mounting arms build-up and its nuclear programme cannot but pose an increasing threat·to peace in the region and the world at large. .. 8. The question of racism in South Africa has been on the United Nations agenda since 1946. The United Nations has adopted several resolutions to bring to an end this anachronistic system, but racist Pretoria ha~ defied all appeals to abandon its policy of apart- heid. It has contmued, on the contrary, with its mea- sures to consolidate it further, behind a smoke- screen of diversionary· propaganda. It is indeed A/37/PV.65 int~nsity of the efforts and actions of the United Nations and of the world at large to eradicate apart- heid. Perhaps no single issue has engaged our atten- tion so compellingly and for so long. Yet apartheid stiB exists. Its evil effects are felt daily by millions of South African men and women who continue to suffer the humiliation of being treated as second-class citizens in their own country. 16. Again this year the General Assembly will adopt a number of resolutions on this item. Just as has been the case so often in the past, these resolutions will fall short of achieving their full purpose. As a result, apartheid will go on tbriving as a political doctrine meant to give legitimacy to a social order in which the very few feel no constraint at subjugating an entire people on the grounds of their ethnic traits. If we are to succeed in our endeavours, we have to face reality and shall perforce arrive at the conclusion that our words alone, however loudly proclaimed in this Hall, will not help liberate the people of South Africa from the yoke of racial domination. Over the course of the years Brazil has undertaken a series of actions that in our opinion are the best contribution we can make towards the achievement of our common goal. Every country should be in a position to know fOT itself in what way it can best assist the international struggle against the crime of apartheid. While there may be differences of opinion on which measures would be most advisable in the short run, Brazil is convinced that all countries have realized by now that the elimination of apartheid is in their own best interests and that the less violently this can be brought about the better. 17. In addition to moral and ethical considerations, Brazil's commitment to international efforts to elimi- nate apartheid is a matter of self-interest. Our national interests are inextricably linked to the 5earch for peace and to the achievement of a climate of general under- standing among nations. We are, therefore, convinced that no effort should be spared to prevent the tensions lurking in South A['ica from developing into an all- out conflagration which will inevitably spread not only throughout the southern African region but far beyond, with unforeseeable consequences. Some days ago Mr. Robert McNamara, the former President of the World Bank, warned that unless the South African authorities soon accept the principle of majority rule, South Mrica, by the 1990s, will pose a threat to international peace and security equivalent to that posed by the Middle East today. This foreboding is shar~d by many others all over the world. Symptoms of what looms ahead are rife: the militarization of Namibia, a Territory illegally occupied by South Africa, from which it stubbornly refuses to withdraw; the occupation of part of the territory of Angola and the constant military forays into that country; the repeated attempts to destabilize neighbouring inde-

The Ukrai- nian people, like all Soviet people, are profoundly grieved by the passing of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ofthe USSR, Leonid llyich Brezhnev. His multifaceted Party and State activities are in- separable from the most important stages in the history of our State. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev played an outstanding role in forming and conducting the foreign policy of the USSR, a policy of peace and friendship among peoples, detente, disarmament and the prevention of a nuclear catastrophe. That policy will be consistently and purposefully continued by our people. 20. Our position of principle remains unalterable on the question of the struggle against colonialism and racism. In the complicated and diverse range of problems considered by the United Nations, the item on apartheid-the disgusting official policy and prac- tices of the white racist minority, which seeks by all possible means to retain the domination over millions of indigenous people in South Africa-is of particular importance. 21. Thirty years ago, in September 1952, represen- tatives of 13 developing States, supported by the socialist and other progressive countries, proposed the' inclusion on the agenda of the General Assembly of the item Qn the question of race conflict in South Africa resulting from the policies of apartheid of the Government of the Union of South Africa} Its ini- tiators believed in the need for an immediate examina- tion of the problem of apartheid as a flagrant, mas- sive violation of the fundamental rights and human freedoms proclaimed and enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. ' 22. However, in subsequent years the world wit- nessed ever more horrible crimes being committed by the racist regime of Pretoria. Three million of the black population were forcibly relocated from their places of birth and 13 million Africans were arrested on the basis of the humiliating pass laws, which restrict the freedom of movement outside reserva- tions. So-called bantustanization has led to a situa- tion in which 7 million Africans do not have the citizenship of their own country. The international community was shaken by the bloody events in Sharpeville in 1960 and in Soweto in 1976. Thousands ofinnocent civilians were killed or wounded, including the elderly, women and children. Thousands of people were thrown into the racists' torture chambers. 24. South Africa continues its militarization of the illegally occupied territory of Namibia and is expanding its military activities against the Namibian people and their sole legitimate representative,. the South West Africa People's Organization [SWAPO]. The racists have undertaken l~rge-scalemilitary activi- ties against the People's Republic of Angola and at the present time are occupying a large part of the territory of that country. Zambia and Mozambique are con- stantly subjected to acts of terrorism and aggression. On 25 November 1981 a group of mercenaries carried out an incursion into Seychelles with the aim of over- throwing the Government of that sovereign State. The report of the Security Council and the testimony given by the mercenaries themselves irrefutably revealed that the incursion had been planned and organized by.the South African authorities. 25. The list of evil acts and crime's committed by the South Af~can racists in violation of generally recognized norms of international law, could go on. The danger to international peace and security of the policy of apartheid appears particularly threatening if we look at Pretoria's actions in the context of the global strategy of the imperialists. The leaders .of the front-line States, at the summit meeting held in March this year, mentioned the increasingly aggressive nature of the imperialists, the tool of which in this region is South Africa. 26. There is no lack of facts showing that all..round collaboration by the imperialist States of the West, primarily the United States, with the .Pretoria regime has entered into a qualitatively new stage at the present time and is the main obstacle to the elimi- nation of the criminal system of apartheid. Those facts are eloquently and convincingly presented in the reportofthe United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid. For example, it states: " ... the responsibility of the major Western Powers and many transnational corporations and other. interests which have, in spite of numerous reso- lutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, helped sustain apartheid by their collabo- ration by providing military, economic, technologi- cal and other support..." [ibid., para. 3J2.] 27. The actions of the United States of America arouse legitimate indignation, for they have cynically stated their intention of continuing constructive relations with the racist regime. As we learned from the Washington publication Transafrica News: . "In the ~pring of last year, top U.S. officials mformed their South African counterparts that domestic change within South Africa VI. e)Uld not be a he~isphere and the tenth largest in the world. 31. We are seriously concerned by Pretoria's feve- rish attempts to acquire the nuclear weapon, with the assistance of its sponsors. Bearing in mind the in- creasingly aggressive nature of the racist regime of South Africa, the implementatipn of such plans is fraught with serious consequences, for they constitute a threat not only to Africa but also to international peace and security. In this connection, we consider the decision of the group of sponsoring States to submit ~gain for the General Assembly's considera- tion a separate draft resolution demanding the ending, of collaboration with South Africa in the military and nuclear fields to be quite correct. 32. The international community cannot any longer postpone the adoption of effective measures to elimi- nate the last bastion of racism and apartheid in our world. My delegation feels that the most effective ~ay for the United Nations to give practical assis- tance to the struggling people of South Africa, under the leadership of its political vanguard, ANC, is by

Virtually since its foundation our Organiza- tion has been compelled to take up the extremely important problem of South African apartheid, that most disgusting form of racism, which is the basis of the ideology of the Pretoria regime and the organi- zational principle on which State power is exercised in South Africa. That system allows the white minority to exert by means of force unimpeded oppression of the non-white majority of the population and to exploit it to the utmost in the economic sphere. This is not only completely contrary to the system of ideological values and humanitarian ideals of mankind in the second part of the twentieth century, and to the feelings and moral consciousness of peoples, but also violates the basic principles ofthe Charter ofthe United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and a number of other important resolutions and declarations of our Organization. 35. The adoption and pursuit of the policy of.apart- heid is a crime against humanity. That policy is in essence completely inhumane, and at the same time it is aggressive a priori. Like other racist ideologies, apartheid involves oppression and repression on the one hand and acts ofaggression against other States on the other. The exercise of apartheid as a State policy is not ~omething that relates to the internal regime only; it seriously impedes the completion ofthe decolo- nization process and also constitutes a serious threat to security and international peace. 36. The policy of the Government of South Africa is eloquent proof of that. The Pretoria regime, with its cruel repression ofthe non-white population, continues its illegal occupation of the Territory of Namibia, refuses to recognize the right of the Namibian people to self-determination and independence and to respect the territorial integrity of Namibia. In addition, it has unleashed an undeclared war against Angola, Mozam- bique an other independent African States and has committed acts of destabilization, diversion and ter- rorism on the territory of these neighbouring States. The interests of the South African racists were at the root of the attempted coup d'hat against the Seychel- les. The aggressive nature of the Pretoria regime has led to a situation in which Africa has been turned into an explosive pocket of tension. 37. In our Organization and other forums, world public opinion is often" treated to theories about the alleged evolution ofapartheid, its alleged toning down, but these are attempts to justify what cannot be justified, a case of taking the desire for the' fact. For the system of apartheid continues to exist, nat~ the apartheid regime, to bring about the speedy granting of independence to Namibia, and to stop South Africa's aggression in southern Africa. We unreservedly welcome the proclamation ofthe Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimina- tion [resolution 2919 (XXVII)] and the proclamation of 19&2 as Interr~l~donal Year of Mobilization for Sam~;tjoil,~ against South Africa [resolution 36/172 B]. We also welcome the intention to convene a second intemational conference against racism and racial discrimination. 45. We highly commend the efforts and results of the work of the Special Committee Against Apartheid. We fully endclrse the conclusions of that Committee, and the decisions they submitted to the General Assembly, which we consider to be cogent and ef- fective. 46. We support any measures, including sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, which our Organization might adopt to force the Pretoria regime to renounce apartheids colonialism and aggression. We fully support the universal imple- mentation of these measures, that is, their consistent implementation by all States, because only through joint efforts by the entire international community can we eliminate apartheid, that ignominious blot on modem-day civilizatior~,a phenomenon whichis totally incompatible with the purposes of our Organization and with the aspirations and ideals of all peoples. 47. Mr. LUSAKA (Zambia): My delegation was deeply grieved at the news of the death of President Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev of the Union of Soviet Social- 51. In the history of international controversies the question ofapartheid is unique in many ways. It is a problem born with the United Nations and one that remains unresolved to this day. Ever since 1946 the question has appeared on practically every annual agenda of our Assembly. During this period the inter- national community has called apartheid morally repugnant, a crime against humanity, contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and a threat to international peace and security. The United Nations "has adopted numerous resolutions invoking the appli- cation of sanctions as a means of achieving the elimination of apartheid. However, in spite of the tremendous efforts exerted by the overwhelming majority of Member States, it has as yet proved impossible to eliminate apartheid, an inhuman and diabolical system which is being seriously challenged by world public opinion. 52. The fundamental reason for this state of affairs remains that, although opposition to and condemna- tion of South Mrica's apartheid policies have been widely supported both within and outside the United Nations, the censures have not been translated into action because of the support given to the South African apartheid regime by some powerful West- ern State&. The actions and reactions of these States have in effect contributed both directly and indirectly to the maintenance of the status quo in South Africa and have also enhanced the geopolitical role of the apartheid regime i~_ the region, a role whose charac- , teristics are apartheid at home and hegemony in the south~ni African region. . - 53. The apartheid regime's friends and allies talk of their traditional commitment to democratic ideals, to freedom, to justice "nd to equality. They say that they abhor violence and opt for peaceful solutions to intractable problems. True, there is much that is attractive in theory about this strategy. UnfortunF~ely these verbal niceties bear little relation to the ques- Pretor~a Iiegime was likely to use this facility to boost its militalry estab!ishmer.t in order to defend the apartheid system. The deplorable IMF vote was taken in total disregard of .overwhelming opposition to the credit facility being extended to South Africa. 61. There is no doubt ~hat the ambivalent attitude of certain Western Powers has strengthened South Africa in its intransigence. With the full support of the United States, South Africa now insists on the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola as a prior condition of Namibia's independence. If the United States is genuinely interested in Namibia's inde- pendence, why should it at the same time give the Pretoria regime a pretext for perpetuating its illegal occupation of the territory by raising and insisting upon what is a totally extrfln'~ous issue? 62. The apologists for South Africa in certain West- ern countries have also been busy trying to deceive the world into believing that the Pretoria regime is committed to change in its apartheid policies. Much .propaganda has been unleashed to glorify the sc-called reforms in the apartheid system. 63. The oppressed people and the !uternational community as a whole cannot and should not be de- ceived. The so-called changes are calculated only to weaken the ranks of the opponents ofapartheid. They are intended to create a conflict between the blacks on the one hand and the Coloured and Indian commu- nities on the other. As could be expected, they have been rejected by all South African patriots. Nothing short of the total eradication of apartheid in an its forms and manifestations and the establishment of a democratic State in which all the people of South Africa, regardless of race, colour or creed, will enjoy equal rights, including the right to elect a represen- tative national Government, will satisfy the oppressed people and put an end to their just struggle. 64. My delegation pays a tribute to the oppressed people of South Africa for their heroic struggle under the leadership of their national liberation movement. We are confident that their struggle will be re- warded with victory in the not too distant future. Apartheid will certainly be eradicated and majority rule will come to South Africa. 65. Mr. MUSTAFFA (Malaysia): We meet today at a most difficult and unpredictable time :n our common endeavour to strive for a better world. The inter- national economic and political environment has not been improving. It has in fact worsened. 66. The General Assembly has therefore a special and important duty to petform this year. We will have to implement expeditiously the decisions of 1981 in the Paris Declaration on Sanctions against South Africa2 and take separate and collective mea- sures to implement the objectives of the Intenlational Year of Mobilization for Sanctions against South Africa to eliminate apartheid. 67. The perpetuation of apartheid in South Africa is indeed one of the most humiliating human experi- 69. Emboldened oy the encouragement and assis- tance of a few major Powers, including the delinquent entity in Tel Aviv, the Pretoria white regime has acted with total disregard of and disdain for the deci- sions and views of the international community. It has intensified with impunity its repression and brutality against the people of South Africa. It has unh~ashed a reign ofterror against the nationalist freedom fighters of southern Africa and has increasingly resorted to indiscriminate arrests, detentions and torture of in- nocent men, women and children. It has committed aggression against its neighbours and flagrantly violated their sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. 70. Since 1952, over 3 million of the people of South Africa have been uprooted from their homes. About 13 million have been arrested under the hUilliliating pass laws, which restrict their freedom of movement outside the reservations. About 7 million have been deprived of their citizenship in their own land through the policy of bantustans. Thousands of civilian men, women and children have been killed or maimed. Over 5,000 people have been held in indefinite deten- tion without trial. Many more are believed to have been tortured brutally during interrogation for suspected offences. Even women and children have not been spared. 71. South Africa is today increasingly resorting to aggression. It has expanded its aggressive activities by vJaging an unremitting war against the Namibian people, who seek independe!1ce from Pretoria's in- human political bondage. South Africa, under the white minority regime, has embarked upon military adven- tures against its neighbours Angola, Mozambique and Zambia and has recently involved itself in a mer- cenary invasion of Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Its military build-up and its nuclear plans threaten the' area with wider conflict and conflagration which potentially represent an enormous threat to interna- tional peace and security. 72. The white minority regime of Pretoria would not be able' to defy the world and carry out its evil scheme without the support and toleran~e of a few major Powers and of the equally racist regime of Tel Aviv. Wc;, appeal to those countries to live up to their ideals and their love for humanity and to act participa~ionin the Special Committee against Apart- th~ foreign policy of the Soviet Stp,te, a policy whit;h heid, as well as through our active involvement in is aimed against a nuclear threp-i., ~lLrengthening the other regior..al and international forums, we shall be hopes of rnankind flK a future fJ;,e~ of destructive able to help remov(; the odious forces of apartheid war:;. Yesterday we !leard the dei,.~ply felt words ~f from the landscape of our contemporary history. We gratit:uGe to Lee.nid Ilyich Brezhnev from the sons Of shall strive to fulfil the asciration of Nelson f\1an- A,frica and froill the repre~entatives of other Stales de1a, who has said that "in its efforts to keep the that cast off the fetters Of coion.~alism witb tf}e help African people in a position orperpetua15l"bnrdination, of the countrr which he led foY' nearly two decades. South Africa must and will faH". During thati pedod, ihe map of (he world has SCfn 75. Malaysia, true to its ooligation and position, the emergence of doz{,ns of .A..fr~can States and ~hat was among the first to break off all links and contacts tendency cannot be reversed. with South Africa. There is a total ban on aB trade 81. The United Nations anG ~:le whole of the fJfogres- and economic relation.~ between Malaysia and sive world community Zl:\S repeatcri~~ c,::"odemned ~he South Africa and a cOI~.?lete prohibition on travel South African r6gi:n~'s p~!icy of apartheid as be:iilg and the exchange of sporting activities between the incompat5ble with human rights, hl.!r:1an dignity and the two countries. We shall continue with our policy of Ch21raer of the United Nations, as ~ serious violation complete boycott and sanc.tions against South Africa of international peace and security aHd as a crime until the voice of the international community is aga,nst humanity. PretorLl.'s apartheid is the most heeded. disgusting system of racia~ domination in the world, 76. At the United Nations, Malaysia will continue to involving the exploitation and humiliation of more impress on those few States that still support Soath than 20 miHion i!~dh;eno ..8 Af. '". qr,j Not only has it caused, a§ it COntiaiUeS to cau, ., e.l0rmous suffering Africa to live up to their obligations under the Charter to the oppressed 8uuth African people and the and to make the Security Council an effective author- people of Namibia, but it is also a source of, and ity . that will compel South Africa to abandon its neo-Nazi ideology and apartheid policy. Among such a reason for, the continuous violation of peace and S h h rf I b stability in the southern African continent and the tates, t ose t at are powe u permanent mem ers of the Security Council must not paralyse the Uoited systematic acts of aggression against neighbouring Nations and prevent it from fulfilling its noble and sovereign States, particularly against the People's . ti· 1 f h Republic of Angola. humane obiective of reemg the peop e 0 sout ern Africa fro~ thdr inhuman bonda~e. We shall always 82. The Pretoria regime, which institutionalized deplore the attitudes and poHtics of that powerful apartheid and made ~t a State policy and ideology, minority in undermining the authority of and in mis- tramples under foot the elementary human rights of using its prerogative in the Security CounciL the indigenous African population and answers the 77 M d I t· . h t"t ti 11 t peaceful demonstrations of opponents of apartheid . Y e ega Ion IS appy 0 give I s u SUpp01 .hi' . II • h h S h . Wit crne repressIOn. It physlca y pums es t e out to the recommendatIons made by the Special Com- I African patriots and those fighting for their libera- mittee against Apartheid, as contained in its report Oit· tion from racial and social oppression. The prisons in the wide-ranging measures to strengthen the sanctions the coun'.ry are overflowing with political detainees, against South Africa in qualitative and quantitative and to judge by the number of death sentences South terms. We also wish to express our sincere apprecia- Africa has long held the top place in the world in tion of the good work done by the Chairman Gf the Committee, Mr- Maitama-Sule. We also appreciate that respect. the efforts undertaken by the Ad Hoc Committee on 83. In implementing their racist plans, the Pretoria the Drafting of an Internatianal Convention against authorities have ove.' the past 30 years forcibly Qusted Apartheid in Sports in submitting to us the revised from their native lands about 3 million native Africans. •••• - u~~~~~._-- .~ ~IJW!!~M!~~~~~~.~. ~, I 84. Despite demands by the United Nations, the racist regime of South Africa c-ontinues to make even harsher the already DracDnian measures against the indigenous African population. It conducts a criminal policy of bantustanization.. Africans, because of their race, are thrust into the so-called homelands, which are allotted the worst land. The goal of ban- tustanization is to fragment the South African people and subvert the growing national liberation move- ments. Having created four such homelands, out of the 10 planned, the Pretoria regime has already dertlrived a third of the indigenous Afri::an population of South Africa of all r~ghb in their own country, because when th~ homelands are created the Africans con- c;;.' ned automatically lose Souib: African citizenship. Thus the South Africa.n· authorities have resolved Co. other of t~eir important probJf:ms by creating a market of cheep labour, now migrant labour, which wm \1e mthlessly exploited by the South African and Western monopolies to produce capitalist super- profits. 85. Th~ 'iJ\ esten: supprJrlers and defenders of S''Juth Afrk&n IIp!!rlhr.~:d sometimes talk about the ostens~ble reform oftti:: !'acist regine of?retoria, but the cosmetic operatior;s of the South J.\frican authorities do not and can'1ot chadlge the racist, anti-human purpose of the apartheid sysl.em in South Africa. They seek to weaken the struggle ofthe indigenous population ofthe country to gain true freedom and seek to divert the wave of wrath and protest of international public opinion. These are merely attempts to guarantee the survival and adaptation of the ignominious system ofapartheid at a time when throughout the world the last vestiges of colonialism are being eliminated. As many speakers have stressed,· apartheid cannot be reformed; this ignominious system of oppression of the majority by the minority should and must be eliminated. 86. Events alld many recent racts have shown that the South African racists have not softened their racial domination over indigenous Africans. On the contrary, they are hardening it by using the most monstrous methods. If anything has been reformed in South Africa-aHd I am talking about real reforms, not re- forms in word only-it is primarily the military police machine of repression and aggression. 87. Ten years ago South Africa's armaments industry was capable of meeting only 30 per cent of the orders placed by the Ministry of Defence. According to the Financial Mail of 17 September this year, that figure is today closer to 90 per cent. We know that South Africa is now the tenth largest arms producer in the capitalist world. South Africa's military expenditure has grown more than threefold since 1977, amounting to about $3 billion in the financial year 1981-1982. The military budget for 1982-1983 envisages another substantial increase-up by 24 per cent compared with that for 1980-81. Over the past few years the South African army's troop strength has beer; increased by 89. It is quite clear that South Africa could not continue its criminal actions, insolently disregarding the United Nations and the demands of uorld public opinion, if it did not r~ceive constant ass~stance and support from the major INestern countries that are members of NATO. The very existence of the apart- heid regime would be impossible without Western sup- port. Western investments in South Africa amount to t~ns of billions of dollars. The volume of trade be- tween South Africa and the Western Powers is con- stantly on the increase. For example, th~~ report of ':h~ Special Committee against Apartheid states that between 1962 and 1980 South Africa's tr2de with the Unitet: States increased by more than 1,300 per cent; with the United Kingdom by more than 500 per cent; and with the Federal Republic of Germany by more than 1,700 per cent. In 1981 loans to South Africa amounted to $2 billion, a threefold increg3(;: over those for 1980. As of March this year, the ioans received by South Africa amounted to $1.1 billion. As was once more shown quite recently, the United States and other Western countries are using the machinery of IMF to give enormous grants to the apartheid regime. After the $250 million loan with which IMF oiled the wheels for the racists at '.lte beginning of this year, we have again witnessed an all-time record loan of more than $1 billion to the Pretoria regime, despite the special resolution adopted by the General Assembly, addressed to IMF and deprecating the very possibility of such grants to the racists. We could go on enumerating details of the munificence of the West in pouring out aid to the racist regime of South Africa as from a cornucopia. However, there is no need to dwell on the all-round collaboration between the Western Powers and the apartheid regime in eco- nomic, trade, political, diplomatic, military, particu- larly nuclear, and other spheres of activity. This is too obvious and too well known. We shall merely note some examples of the truly fatherly concern of the United States for the well-being of the racist regime of Pretoria which have been reported in the press this year. 90. At the end of February this year the Reagan Administration reduced its trade l ...StJ :ctions with South Africa and in particular opened the door for deliveries by United States companies to the South African army and polke of so-called non-military goods, including computers, communication equip- ment and so on. In May this year the United States Administration adopted a very flexible policy allowing American firms to increase sales of nuclear equip- ment to South Africa. The Department of Commerce of the United States has informed us that since May 1980 five export licences have been granted for the purchase of equipment in the United States for the South African nuclear programme. Quite recently, 91. All these and many other actions by the United States Administration are a manifestation and imple- mentation of the avowed new regional strategy of the United States in respect of southern Africa. The essence of this strategy is the doctrine of recoloniza- tion, in which South Africa is to play the role of a destabilizer of independent African States. v 92. The point of all this is that the maintenance of that pocket of colonialism and racism in southern Mrica is in the long-term political, strategic and eco- nomic interests of the United States and other West- ern Powers, which see in South Mrica a major bul- wark of racism and a springboard for fighting the national liberation movemf.nts in Africa. According to the thorough report of the Study Commission on U.S. Policy Toward Southern Africa, entitled "South Africa: Time running out", published in 1981 by the Foreign Policy Study Foundation,3 among the interests and purposes of the United States in South Africa, the defence of its military strategic inter- ests has become of overriding importance. Then we see that this is to guarantee sufficient deliveries to the United States ofuseful minerals such as chromium, manganese, platinum, vanadium and so on. All this shows that the Pretoria regime is an active tool of imperialism in Mrica. The imperialists openly use the South Mrican regime as a tool to perpetrate armed subversive actions against the scvereign States of southern Mrica. They trample under foot the United Nations decisions on the granting of independence to Namibia and make attempts to maintain that country as a barbed-wire-enclosure preserve of racism and oppression for mafl..r years to come. That is why the Western Powers, primarily the United States, by frequent use of the veto in the Security Council, have impeded the adoption of effective measures against the apartheid regime. The conscience of man- kind demands that there be an end to the despicable and inhuman policy of apartheid. 93. The illegal occupation of Namibia by racist South Mrica should be ended and power in that coun- try should be immediately and unconditionally given to the Namibian people and its sole legitimate represen- tative, SWAPO. There must be an end once and for all to the acts of aggression of the Pretoria regime against sovereign Mrican States. In particular, the aggres- sive South African forces should be withdrawn imme- diately from southern Angola. The Namibian and South African peoples must be liberated from colonial and racist oppression. 94. The delegation of the Byelorussian SSR sup- ports the measures to eradicate the policies of apart- heid contained in the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, calls for strict com- pliance with the sanctions that have already been imposed against the Pretoria regime and advocates the adoption by the Security Council of comprehen- sive mandatory sanctions against South Africa under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. anachroni~ticpractice which has rightly been dubbed a crime against humanity and a challenge to our Organization. This pressure has led to the growing isolation of Pretoria at the international level. How- ever, it has not brought about the major changes called for by the General Assembly. 97. Indeed, with the exception of a few minor re- forms that do not affect the substantive aspects of the policy of apartheid, racial discrimination is still the official policy of the South African State and the South African people today continue to be as oppressed as they were 30 years ago. The reasons for thjs are simple and have been repeat~d)y pointed out by the General Assembly. Apartheid is an in- trinsically unjust system which cannot be improved by piecemeal reforms. The only valid acceptable alter- native is its total elimination. 98. The continuation of the policy of apartheid has created a deep crisis in South Africa, the prolonga- tion of which could have serious consequences for peace and security in southern Africa. This is a dis- turbing picture and what is needed is for the South African Government speedily and radically to change its present position. It is regrettable that this neces- sary change of attitude still seems far off. In fact, far from carrying through the fundamental reforms caned for by the people of South Africa and by the international community, the South African Govern- ment has continued to develop policies that can only be explained as seeking a strengthening of apartheid rather than its elimination. 99. Thus, Pretoria has continued to develop its policy of bantustanization and has continued to imprison and repress political, trade union and spiritual leaders of the African majority. Furthermore, South Africa continues illegalJy to occupy Namibia placing obstacles in the way of that people's right to self- determination and independence and launching un~ provoked attacks against the front-line States, whose Governments Pretoria seeks to destabilize. Even today, South Mrica is occupying parts of Angola, violating the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that State and seriously endangering peace and security in that region. 100. The continued intransigence of the South African Government and the danger to international peace and security represented by the policy of apartheid demand that the international community in- crease its pressure on Pretoria as a matter of urgency and in concrete form. This should be done 'through the effective measures repeatedly reaffirmed by the I 129. Obviously the world community is still faced with a challenging task as it seeks to eliminate racism and colonialism in southern Africa. However, it has succeeded in keeping the question ofapartheid before the conscience of the world and the steady and un- failing efforts of the majority of Member States will certainly continue while millions of Africans are subjected to this crime against humanity. 130. My delegation welcomes the increasing support that is being given for the attainment of the goals of the International Year of Mobilization for Sanc- tions against South Africa. It has long been evident that the threat to regional and international peace and security posed by South Africa's racist and bel- ligerent policies and by its illegal occupation of Nami- bia demands action under Chapter VII of the Charter. The valuable work of national non-governmental or- ganizations in gaining support at the grass-roots level for action against apartheid is another important con- tribution to the international campaign. 131. It seems clear, however, that effective external pressure for change in South Africa must come from its main trading partners. They can no longer claim with any credibility that conditions in South Africa have improved or that apartheid will wither away of its own accord. They must face the truth squarely that in continuing and strengthening their ties with South Africa they are placing themselves on the side of injustice, oppression and racism. 132. Recently ~ significant public statements on apartheid have been made by two Western statesmen who command great international attention and respect. Speaking in South Africa, Henry Kissinger called for human dignity, civil"rights and full political participation for all South Africans. 133. In an article in The New York Times of 24 Oc- tober, Robert McNamara warned that the refusal ofthe South African Government to make any fundamental changes in its racial policies appeared to make a violent explosion inevitable. In his view, such a catastrophic racial connict would have seriQus ramifications throughout the Western world, and South Africa could become in the 1990s as great a threat to world peace as the Middle East is today. 134. My delegation strongly hopes that these state- ments reflect the development ofnew attitudes towards the question of apartheid and that 1982 will mark the beginning of a new era of co-operation on measures to end this evil and dangerous systeln. 136. Mr. President, since this is the first time I have addressed the General Assembly, I should like to con- gratulate you on your well-deserved election and to express my delegation's gratitude for the way in which you are conducting our debates. 137. May I make special mention also of the un- tiring excellent work done by the Special Committee against Apartheid under the chairmanship of Mr. Mai- tama-Sule of Nigeria. 138. We have just commemorated the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the Special Com- mittee against Apartheid. Ever since its inception, the essential purpose of the Committee has been to ensure that measures agreed upon by the Member States ofthis Organization are implemented against the South African regime, with a view to the elimination once and for all of all forms of racial discrimination- in other words, to bring about the disappearance of the abhOlTent system of apartheid or, as one distin- guished diplomat has said, of the most repugnant and inhuman vestige of the colonial era. 139. Over all these years eminent representatives of different countries in our international community have cast light on the system of apartheid through masterly analyses. Our Organization has adopted countless resolutions condemning it. Rarely in the. history of our Organization has there been such unani- mity'on an issue. 140. Sixteen long years had to elapse between ~he Sharpeville massacre of 1960 and the Soweto mas- sacre of 1976 before the concert of nations began to react vigorously. On 4 November 1977 the arms embargo was imposed on South Africa.4 We have to say that that embargo was as late as it was ineffective, as has been clearly demonstrated, because at the time the embargo was bruught into being the South African regime already had a vast and expanding military industry. That was made clear ·when South Africa carried out its flfst nuclear test, in 1979. 141. The blunt truth is that in 34 years of institu- tionalization, South Africa has not only maintained its position, against the will of the 25 million human beings that make up the South African people and of , mankind as a whole, but also become a highly' dangerous destabilizing element in southern Africa. How has this surprising and confusing change been possible? The answer to that question seems absolutely clear to the international community. 142. When the Co-ordinator of the Junta of the Government of National Reconstruction, Commander of the Revolution Ortega Saavedra, addressed this Assembly at the thirty-sixth session, he said: 144. The change brought about between the South Africa of 1948, the year when apartheid was institu- tionalized as a system, and the military-industrial State it has become in our time has been possible only because of the economic, military and political support it has received from some Western countries, but fundamentally from the United States. In other words, South Africa maintains its inhuman regime -inhuman because it alienates, tyrannizes and dis- criminates-as a result of its strategic alliance with the United States, which clearly involves close rela- tions with the State of Israel. This multifaceted alliance, with its clear economic designs, has been a determining factor in the surviva}, consolidation and expansion of the South African regime and its policy of apartheid. 145. One of the axes of the current internal policy of Pretoria is continuance of the development of what has been called bantustanization, through which it is setting up a chain of pseudo-States around it as a so-called protective zone. Further, it seeks to sow division among the oppressed people by means of such detestable manreuvres as pretending to grant limited political rights to the so-called Indians or Coloureds in order t{\ use them against the black population. 146. Today no serious-minded person, no Govern- ment with common sense or a sense of responsibility, can fail to realize that Pretoria continues to receive advanced industrial technology, sophisticated elec- tronic equipment, advanced computer systems and so .on, which it pretends are not for military use. They are not poor countries, developing countries such as our own, which are furnishing large amounts of assistance, not only in material and equipment but also in financial resources. It is some of the indus- trialized countries, Western democracies" as they are usually called-this is one of the paradoxes of history, since ihey are supporting a country whose regime is the very negation ofthe idea of democracy- which are helping South Africa and continuing to do so. 147. We, the countries which are currently suffering from the savage repercussions of a world economic crisis, with enormous balance-of-payments problems, lacking the financial resources to carry out our economic development plans, we, the countries of the so-called third world, with a total debt which ap- proaches $600 billion, which are today having ,.great difficulty in obtaining loans and having to pay high interest rates, we are the last to benefit from the NOTES 2 See A/CONF.I07/8. ". 3 South Africa: Time running out, Foreign Policy Study Founda- tion, Inc., University of California Press, 1981, p. XXIV. 4 Security Council "resolution 418 (1977).