A/39/PV.69 General Assembly

31.  Policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa : (a) Report. of the Special Committee against Apartheid; (b) Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Drafting ?f an International Convention against Apartheid JR Sports; Cc) Report of the Secretary-General .1. Mr. KESAVAPANY (Singapore): Once again, as It has done over the past three decades this body takes up the all-important question of apartheid. That we have every year unfailingly condemned the South African regime for its practice of this inhu- mane and obnoxious system is testimony to our deep and abiding com!llItm~nt to the principle of racial equality as enshnned In the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 2. The discussion this year takes place against the background .of i~c!eased repression by the South African racls~ regime. In. the face of mounting opposition to ItS sham constitutional proposals intro- duced last year, the regime has intensified repression and. coercion. As the report of the Special Committee against Apartheid points out, the regime "arrested, detained, tortured, tried or banned opponents of its criminal system. It accelerated the policy of bantu- stanization, enforced harshly the notorious 'pass laws', and implemented even more harshly its inhu- man policy of forced populations removals." [See A/39/22, para. 138.] 3. This increased repression, however, has resulted not in cowing the majority of the people, but rather in inspiring them to continue the struggle for racial equality and justice. The struggle has also begun to take on a violent undertone as an increasingly significant number of people are ready to resort to the use of force to get what they cannot secure by peaceful means. According to the report of the Special Committee against Apartheid, in 1983 alone there were 395 incidents of bombings, armed attacks and other such actions in South Africa. The trend has continued into 1984, with the level of violence ever increasing. Thus the stage is being set for violent confrontation if sanity and reason do not prevail. Wednesday, 21 November 1984,