A/42/PV.71 General Assembly

Before giving the floor to the first speaker, I should like to remind representatives that, in accordance with the decision taken yesterday morning, the list of speakers in the debate on this item will be closed today at noon. I would therefore request those representatives wishing to participate in the debate to put their names on the list as soon as possible. In accordance with the decision taken by the General Assembly at its third plenary meeting, on 18 September 1987, I now call on the representative of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC). Mr. MLAMBO (Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC)): At the outset, allow me, on behalf of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), the custodian of the genuine aspirations of the oppressed and dispossessed people of Azania, to congratulate you, Sir, on your unanimous election to the high office of President of the General Assembly. Your country has championed the struggle against all forms of racism, oppression and exploitation, especially nazism and apartheid. Moreover, we have no doubt that, under your wise guidance, the current session of the General Assembly will fully and frankly discuss the item on the agenda, namely, the diabolical policies and practices of the illegal minority racist regime in South Africa, and adopt firm measures further to isolate the Pretoria regime internationally. It is now a year since the General Assembly discussed this item. During that period, the just and legitimate struggle of the oppressed and dispossessed Azanian people has significantly advanced. At the same time, the racist regime became more repressive internally and more aggressive against the front-line and neighbouring States. During the past year, the momentum, by and large, was maintained internally by the ever-growing resistance of the people on all fronts. The oppressed and disenfranchised workers in Azania forged ahead with their just struggle and with their quest for unity. The trade union movement in our country has consolidated and formed significant federations. The Council of Trade Unions of South Africa (CUSA), and the Azanian Confederation of Trade Unions (AZACTU), together representing over 420,000 Azanian workers, merged to form the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU). The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, the national liberation movement of the oppressed and dispossessed majority, fully supports the struggle of African workers to unionize themselves, unite the unions and adopt a liberalizing orientation. The National Council of Trade Unions and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) are playing an important role in the struggle for national liberation and self-determination. The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania met with a delegation of the National Council of Trade Unions recently in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, and issued a statement reflecting our common approach in our common struggle to liquidate the evil apartheid system. The Pan Africanist Congress, moreover, has called on the trade union federations inside apartheid South Africa to unite and present a common principled stand against the discriminatory and exploitative system. The determined struggle waged by the Azanian workers has led to the arrest and detention of many trade unionists. Moreover, the recent miners' strike revealed many things to the Azanian workers. Their demand for a 30 per cent increase in salary - and had it been met, tbey would still be earning less than half the salary paid to the lowest-paid white miner - was rejected by the mine owners. White miners are entitled to five. years' salary in case of a fatal accident. The African miner is only entitled to two years' salary. Although earning less than half of that paid to the white miner, the African miner demanded that he should be entitled to five years' salary as well. This demand, too, was rejected. White and African miners are not entitled to the same paid leave. The white miner gets 35 days per annum, whereas the African miner gets only 14 days' paid leave. The mine owners refused to eliminate even this disparity. The African miners, through this strike, exposed the true nature of the mining companies. They are on record claiming that their abhorrence of apartheid is total, but, when it comes to paying the African miner a living wage, they resort to the use of the State machinery to suppress the just struggle of the miners. Through this campaign, the African miners have learnt that their condition in the mines can only substantially improve after the overthrow of the apartheid system and when the oppressed people exercise their right of self-determination. On the youth front the struggle has also intensified. The principled opposition to the inferior "Bantu Education" system has continued in various forms. Their principled opposition and the internal situation has led to the direct confrontation between the people and the armed forces of the racist r~gil Consequently, the youth is mobilized and politicized. This has resulted in the regime now arresting and detaining children as young as 7 years of age and keepi them imprisoned for long terms. When a regime considers a seven-year-old a potential security risk, then that regime is truly panic-stricken. The regime, in the face of growing resistance, has attempted to increase it repression. Killings, either by the regime's armed forces or by its vigilantes, lave increased. An unprecedented number of Azanian patriots now languish in the :egime's prisons. Over 30 Azanian patriots are awaiting execution. They includl :he Sharpeville Six, who have been sentenced to death for initiating the current lprising, and they include a woman, Comrade Theresa Ramashamola, age 26. On I November 1987, the racist regime executed Comrade Mlungisi Luphondo, a member ( he Azanian National Youth Unity (AZANYU) and also a member of a trade union, th~ frican Allied Workers Union, which is affiliated with the National Congress of rade Unions. The family of Comrade Luphondo has asked us to convey to you, omrade President, their heartfelt appreciation for the cable you dispatched to . W. Botha asking that their son's life be spared on humanitarian grounds. )mrade Luphondo's name has been added to the many young heroes whose blood water le Azanian tree of freedom. Internal press censorship has always existed in apartheid South Africa and w lposed through various means. Today no outside journalist, including those from le Western countries, can file stories and send them out without prior permissio the racist regime's Bureau of Information. Consequently, all news items appearing in Western news media have the approval of the racist regime. Racist South Africa has succeeded in turning the so-called objective world media into their propaganda instrument. The racist regime, faced with the ever-growing internal and international isolation, is attempting to give the impression that it is now in control of things and is moving towards reforms. No regime which imposes stringent press censorship on foreign media and which relies more and more on the gun to perpetuate its rule, and detains all and sundry, including children, can honestly claim to "have things under control". Moreover, the reforms thus far introduced are merely cosmetic and are aimed at warding off international isolation rather than solving the problem. The racist regime has spent some several million rand in an effort to appease the residents of Alexandra Township by engaging in the so-called "beautification" schemes. These pitiful efforts were also calculated to silence international criticism. It will be recalled that Alexandra Township was the scene of serious clashes in 1985 and 1986, between the racist police and soldiers with the residents of Alexandra Township, and also with the so-called "Scorp ion Gangs", who were none other than the cadre of the Azanian Peoples' Liberation Army (APLA), the military wing of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. The General Assembly declared this year, 1987, as the Year of the Homeless, to focus attention on the plight of people who are without shelter throughout the world. The homelessness and evictions of the oppressed in Azania continues unabated. In a column in the Sowetan newspaper of 23 October 1987, entitled "Perspectives", by Joseph Thloloe, a vivid description of the state of homelessness and the agony suffered by the residents of our country is graphically depicted. A Mrs. Mofokeng, November 1986 to 6 January 1987, the Soweto City Council demolished the residents' shacks four times. "And mind you, it does not take less than 800 rand to build a shack", Mrs. Mofokeng relates. "After they have pulled down our shacks, we fi>nd that we cannot use some of the material again. We have to buy some more." But then Mrs. Mofokeng continues. She relates the fact that permission has been given to her family to reside in Mshenguville. For this permission she has to pay a sum ~f 35 rand per month to the Soweto City Council. But this permission does not juarantee against the destruction of her shack if the Soweto City Council should so lecide. Mshenguville, right in the centre of Soweto, near the affluent city of rohannesburg, reveals the paucity, the emptiness, of the racist minority regime1s lromises of reform. South Africa is rich enough to provide decent housing for all If its inhabitants. But the overwhelming majority of its people live in such areas s Mshenguville, where there are no streets, and there is no refuse removal. It is nly in the outskirts of this particular shanty town that the garbage is sometimes ollected. In spite of the 35 rand which is paid monthly, the residents of shenguville are not provided with any water facility. The residents have to pay :lUseholders in the neighbourhood of Mshenguville for water, which ought to have ~en provided by the Soweto City Council. Given the above facts of people forced to pay steep costs for non-existent services, people, the majority of whom are unemployed, underpaid, oppressed and exploited, would it surprise anyone if they were to turn their anger against those same city councillors? No one who has been following developments in my country, Azania, can have failed to note the suffering visited upon children, women, old men and the infirm, particularly during the past winter season, when whole families were evicted from their homes and all their possessions were thrown out into the bitter cold. Photographs of helpless day-old babies crying in the winter cold after their parents had been thrown out filled the pages of the alternative press in my country. As the housing and rent crises worsens, some of us remember statements by b~g business after the national uprising of 16 June 1976. Then big business suggested as a solution the creation of a black middle class whose members would own homes. The logic was that people who owned homes would not resort to riots. This middle class would create a bUffer; it would by and large act as a buffer against what were referred to as the riotous hordes from below. That middle class has been created, but it too resents apartheid and therefore does nothing to serve as a buffer against the anger of our people from below. I have highlighted the plight of the people in Mshenguville, which is right in the centre of the country, near the most affluent city, Johannesburg, but what happens in the countryside areas is even worse. The PAC and the people of Azania, therefore, have long resolved that apartheid cannot be reformed, but must be totally eradicated. Moreover, the United Nations has declared apartheid to be a crime against humanity. The total eradication of the evil system of apartheid can be achieved by the ideoLogically, organizationally and militarily. Moreover, the internal factor will prove the decisive factor. Those in some circles are still advocating the line tha\t the reg ime constitutes the vehicle for change, deliberately reading much .into the trivial gestures of reform coming from the racists in Pretoria. At one stage we were told that the so-called constructive engagement policy would induce the regime to introduce changes. That policy emboldened the regime to intensify the repression internally and become more aggressive against the front-line and neighbouring States. Later we were told that the so-called new constitution, which the United Nations Security Council has declared null and void, was a step in the right direction. It did turn out to be a step, but a step to the right. Then we were told to pin our hopes on the outcome of the all-white elections of May 1987, that victory by some three or four liberals would dramatically change the lot of the dispossessed masses of Azania. Of late there has been much talk of the willingness of Afrikaaner intellectuals to have a dialogue with the representatives of the national liberation movements. The reSults of the all-white elections of 6 May 1987 clearly demonstrated that those intellectuals are individuals, as opposed to representing a social force. In keeping with basic PAC principles, those individuals are welcome to participate in the liberation struggle as individuals, rather than to constitute themselves into ~n ethnic group without a following. The PAC maintains that chasing these political gimmicks helps only to prolong :he demise of the apartheid system. The people must pursue their agreed programme, ,hieh reflects their just aspirations. Moreover, they must resort to those methods .f struggle that are viable in practical situations. The Azanian masses, following heir bitter experiences after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 and the Soweto uprisings of 1976, correctly decided that armed struggle must be the principal for~ of struggle. In this regard we are gratified that the United Nations has repeatedly stated that our people have the legitimate right to employ all means at their disposal to overthrow the apartheid regime, and these means include armed struggle. As regards armed struggle, our people have developed, in difficult circumstances, the capacity to resist the armed forces of the racist regime. The Azanian Peoples' Liberation Army (APLA), the military wing of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, is now operating in many places inside racist South Africa, both in the urban and in the rural areas. The Azanian Peoples' Liberation Army's very presence has terrified the apartheid rulers and given encouragement to the oppressed majority to intensify their just struggle. Fallen APLA combatants have been declared heroes by the Azanian masses. The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, while lnaintaining that the internal struggle is the decisive factor, regards the external struggle by the wider international community as an important complementary factor. Today the regime stands internationally isolated. Even its one-time staunch allies can no longer support the regime publicly. The sanctions campaign launched by the Azanian people through their national liberation movements has also won support. Today, all States apply sanctions in one form or another against the apartheid regime. However, the most effective form would be the imposition of comprehensive mandatory sanctions. Only the United States, Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany have openly and vigorously prevented the Security Council of the United Nations from imposing mandatory economic sanctions. The people of Azania congratulates those States that have adopted measures against the Pretoria regime and calls upon them to make these individual measures mandatory through the Security Council of the United Nations. We urge them to persist along these lines. As for those who protect the racist regime from imposition of mandatory sanctions, the people of Azania have a moral right to regard them as accomplices in the perpetuation of a system correctly described by the international community as a crime against humanity. The racist regime has engaged in a systematic terror campaign against the peoples and Governments of the front-line and neighbouring States. In some cases the racist regime is using intimidation and blackmail. In other cases it is using naked aggression. zimbabwe, Zambia, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho, Botswana and ~ngola have all been victims of aggression by the racist forces. Arch-racist P. W. Bothals recent visit to southern Angola is testimony to the increased 199ression against the independent States of southern Africa. Racist South \frica1s continued violation of the territorial integrity of a peace-loving ;Overeign African State cannot go unpunished. The United Nations and all :reedom-Ioving people must demand the immediate withdrawal of all racist troops :rom Angola. I should like to take this opportunity to commend all those who have :onsistently supported our struggle within the confines of the United Nations ,ystem, within the various Committees of the General Assembly. Without their igilance and true sense of justice our efforts would have been hampered. We are hinking of Committees such as the Fifth Committee and others that have championed our cause with a zeal only honest persons could summon. Azania will always remember their honest efforts. May I also touch on another matter that is vital to our fight against the ~vil system of apartheid, namely, the dissemination of information. The racists, as I have stated earlier, have clamped down on the media. Our people, none the less, continue to be encouraged by what the international community does for them, ani this they come to know only through the radio progra~nes from this institution, among others. It would, therefore, seem that when the racist regime clamps dowl on news the international community should increase its dissemination of informati~n into racist South Africa, that the United Nations through the Anti-Apartheid Rattio Unit should do the same. Therefore we hope that in the restructuring of the Department of Public Information this fact will not be lost sight of. The Anti-Apartheid Radio Unit is our lifeline into racist South Africa. In conclusion, having been a political prisoner myself for a whole two decades and intimately knowing what each prisoner goes through regardless of his fame ~ popularity, I should like to speak here today about three such men who have recently been released from long prison sentences. They are small men of whom perhaps the world does not take notice; nevertheless they belong to the majorit! that take much of the suffering of which revolutions are made but seldom get thl credit. Because very little, if anything at all, is said about them, the enemy can do with them as it pleases. Three such men are members of my organization. John Nkosi, who until last week was the longest-serving life political prisoner in all of South Africa, was arrested at the age of 18 for sabotage and was sentenced in 1963 to life imprisonment. Michael Matsobane was on Robben Island in the early 1960s, when it was cal~ed the struggle. He again went to Robben Island after the June 1976 Soweto uprising. He was accused No. 2 in the Bethal-18 secret trials. He appeared along with President Zephania Motopeng. Therefore he too continued with the struggle in his Own quiet manner, as the majority of our people continue to serve, to suffer and to sacrifice for the sacred cause. He was due to be released after completing his IS-year term of imprisonment, which was imposed upon him in 1979. The third man I wish to talk about here is Walter Tshikila, who since 1960 has been on Robben Island on three occasions. He had launched, together with Founder-President Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, a campaign against the pass laws in 1960. He served and completed his sentence. He was again rounded up in 1963, when most members of the PAC, including myself, were rounded up, and he completed another five-year term of imprisonment. In 1975 Comrade Walter Tshikila was arrested by the racist regime, tortured and sent to Robben Island, having been sentenced to a l3-year term of imprisonment, together with another eight. He was due to have completed his sentence in 1990. Therefore the Pan Africanist Congress is very proud of the sacrifices that have been made by these small people, these unknowns - because it is such unknowns that constitute the majority. The case of Comrade John Nkosi is very important to us of the PAC because he has spent more years of his life inside prison than Jutside. He was offered the opportunity of release earlier on but he refused it. rherefore we are proud that he has come out of prison unbowed. I take this opportunity, therefore, to thank, among others, the Special Committee against Apartheid for its consistent encouragement to us while we were pr isoners on Robben Island. We hope that the Special Commi t tee will continue to call for the release of all the remaining comrades, including PAC President, Zephania futhopeng, and comrade Jeff Masemola, who was John N1<osi's co-accused and who at this particular moment, therefore, stands out as the longest serving life political prisoner. We call on the Special Committee against Apartheid to intensify its efforts to achieve the release of all other poli tical pr isoners, including comrade Nelson Mandela. Mr. HASSAN (United Arab Emirates) (interpretation from Arabic): I wish at the outset, Mr. President, to congratulate you on your remarkable, wise leadership of the work of the forty-second session of the General Assembly, which commands our admiration and appreciation. I express my delegation's appreciation also of the tireless effor ts of the Special Commi ttee aga inst Apartheid in prepar ing reports and providing the public wi th documents and informa tion on the policies of apartheid of the racist South African Government. UndoUbtedly the work of the Special Committee against Apartheid has scored great success in enlightening and informing world public opinion. The agony suffer ed by the peoples of souther n Afr ica today is caused by a system that was summed up by its proponents in a word that is very difficult to tr ansla te into another language, namely, apar theid, which is the separ ation of whi tes and non-whi tes. That word was used for the first time on 25 January 1944 in a statement by Mr. Malan, a former Prime Minister of South Africa, in the Parliament of the apartheid Government. The philosophy of apartheid categorizes the people of Afr ica on the bas is of colour. It is a ph ilosophy based on the firm belief that these people do not and cannot cons ti tu te one society wi th one citizenship but, rather, is made up of distinct, separate groups of whites and non-whites. The proponents of the apartheid regime believe that the white minority is qualified by virtue of its colour to rule the country and enjoy its wealth and the rights and privileges of citizenship, while the non-whites should exist in separate areas and be the slaves of the white minority. Of the total South African population of 31 million, there are 24 million blacks. Despite the fact that blacks and Coloureds constitute about 85 per cent of the population, they are denied the most basic human rights, thanks to the apartheid regime. At the government level the power is concentrated in the hands of the white minority, whether in the ministries or in official departments. The so-called Parliament, which is devoid of blacks, applies the letter of the policy of apartheid and categorizes people as whites, blacks, Indians and Coloureds. Groups have their own Chambers and every Chamber considers the matters pertaining to its particular group. The whites have their Chamber, as do the Coloureds and the Indians. No law may be amended without the approval of the three Chambers, which are dominated by the white minority. This makes it clear that there is no ?Ossibility of introducing any law that is inconsistent with the policy of ~partheid. It is ironic that more than 24 million blacks are not represented in :hat racist Parliament. The racist Pretoria regime does not confine itself to increasingly savage )ppression of the major i ty of the people of South Air ica. It also follows a policy If aggression against and intimidation, oppression and economic and military estabilization of the front-line States so as to discourage them from supporting he Opponents of the regime. The policies followed by the apartheid Government in South Africa are also applied in Namibia. This is evidenced by its plundering of the resources of Namibia, its disP~acement of thousands of Namibians from their homeland, its confiscation of land on which to settle white farmers, and in the destruction of fami~ies by displacing them and using them as cheap labour on the farms and in th~ factories of whites. The growing popular mobilization in South Africa reflects the determination of the black majority to dismantle the apartheid regime and lay the foundations for a non-racial, democratic society. The response of the authorities of the racist regime was to try to crush popular opposition by the extension of the state of emergency to cover all parts of the country, despite the repeated appeals of the international community. The severity of the sentences under the state of emergency has increased through the banning and silencing of extraparliamentary and political opposition and dissent. At the same time, the authorities have put forward so-called betterment schemes in some black communities so as to pre-empt the resistance, polarize the people and deceive the international community. The destiny of South Africa must be determined by all the people, regardless of race, colour, sex or creed, and on the basis of full equality. The United Arab Emirates reaffirms its support for the legitimacy of the heroic struggle waged by the people of South Africa to eradicate apartheid and establish their legitimate right to live in peace and freedom. We strongly conde~ the measures of oppression and intimidation carried out by the racist Government of Pretoria against the African population. We call on the international community to make every effort to ensure the unconditional, immediate release of all political prisoners, including Mr. Nelson Mandela, the safe return of all political exiles, the lifting of the ban on liberation movements and political organizations and the ending of all acts of oppression against the opponents of apartheid. The racist regime in South Africa defies the international community and the United Nations through its rejection of all resolutions adopted either by the Security Council or by the General Assembly. We believe that this intransigence must be met by the adoption of stronger political and economic measures. The racist regime of Pretoria co-operates in all fields with the regime of the racist Zionist entity in occupied Palestine, particularly in the military field ind, more specifically, in the development of nuclear weapons, the training of ~ercenaries and the so-called combating of terrorism - that is, the combating of :he national forces which struggle against apartheid and occupation. This :trategic co-operation is based on the ideological similarity of the apartheid egime and the Tel Aviv Government and the desire to consolidate apartheid in South frica and occupation and expansion in the Middle East. In other words, o-operation between Israel and South Africa is based on the common denominator of he two regimes, namely, their inherent animosity to the peoples of Asia and Erica. It is important to reaffirm here that South Africa and the racist regime in :cupied Palestine are identical in their firm belief in the policy of invasion and le survival of the fittest. The fittest in their view is the white man and what ley call the white man's culture. The philosophy of Herzl, one of the founders of le Zionist movement, was based on the alleged right of the white European to minate Africa and Asia, because colonialism, in his view, was a noble mission the m of which was to transfer developed European civilization to the peoples of those parts. This philosophy is translated into daily acts by the racist regime of Pretoria and the Tel Aviv Government. My delegation pays a tribute to the people of South Africa for their heroic struggles under the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) I for freedom, independence and equality. We are confident that this just struggle will be crowned with success, just as the peoples of Africa were victorious against colonialism and attempts to impose dependence and hegemony. decline and fall of the abhorrent system of apartheid is inevitahle. What is still at issue is only whether the end will come as a result of evolutionary change, violent confrontation or protracted negotiations. Our debate is therefore important not only because of the actual evolution of the situation in and around South Africa but also in connection with what can be done auickly in order to alleviate tension in the region and to arrive at possible solutions which would be compatible with the people's aspirations and achieve real progress towards granting political rights to the hlack majority. It is also necessary for the international community to continue exerting constant pressure on the racist regime and to keep the whole world aware of the atrocities beinq committed by Pretoria against the people of Namihia and those of the neighbouring countries, as well as against their own population, including children. Permanent violation of the law, internal terror, the state of emergency, thousands of imprisoned people, external aggression, support for terrorist organizations in the front-line states, the illegal occupation of Namihia and obstruction of the liheration process - that is the image of South Africa today. In fact, it is a "real evil empire", as declared by the President of Zamhia, Mr. Kenneth Kaunda, in his statement at the extraordinary plenary meeting of the United Nations Council for Namibia in Luanda last May. To the justified demands for freedom and independence of the peoples in South Africa and Namibia, the racist regime responds with force, violence, repression and terror, all of which have hecome the order of the day. Pretoria ignores all international calls for reform and the dismantling of apartheid. They have even turned a deaf ear to the advice and recommendations for change from their Western allies. The most characterLstic feature of the situation, however, is that the more the regime resists making real modifications, the more fierce, vehement and widespread becomes the struggle of the black majority for their rights and ideas. ~he internal anti-apartheid front, which today is not confined to black Africans, becomes more and more consolidated. A ferment is at work among South African whites, who are disappointed with apartheid policies. The meeting of the representatives of white Afrikaner organizations and institutions with leaders of the African National Congress (ANe) in Dakar last July proves it beyond any doubt. Only a few years ago such a meeting would have been impossible. The important and meaningful role of those organizations for the future development of the situation in South Africa must not be underestimated. The recent miners' strike - the higgest ever in South Africa - indicates a aualitatively different scale of prates in the fight against the apartheid system. Successful changes in the situation in the region depend on the prompt initiation of the process of elimination of the inhuman system of apartheid, the immediate withdrawal of the South African troops and administration from Namibia, putting an end to the South African aggression against neighbouring countries ann, on the internal scene, granting recognition and legality to the organizations representing the black majority, inclUding the ANC, and an immediate start of negotiations without any pre-conditions. Any further delay can only aggravate thE situation in South Africa, endanger peace in the region and provoke serious international repercussions. We must stress once more that South Africa's Westerr partners, especially the united States of America, bear a heavy moral responsihility for what is going on there and for the future course of events. The talks held in Poland in May this year with the mission of the front-line States, as well as with the Chairman of the ANC, Oliver Tambo, during his official visit last August, have strengthened our belief that the most significant and efficient means of forcing the Pretoria regime to abandon its ruthless policy of apartheid would be the immediate imposition and implementation of comprehensive mandatory sanctions under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. Poland has been consistently in favour of such a compulsory measure. We stress once more our solidarity with the anti-apartheid front in South Africa and declare our support for the African National Congress and other black majority organizations. My delegation will support all resolutions intended to accelerate the process of liberation of the people of South Africa from the yoke of apartheid and colonialism. Mr. PEJIC (Yugoslavia): The situation in South Africa is rapidly deteriorating as a consequence of the policy and practice of apartheid of the regime in Pretoria. Unbridled oppression, ter.ror and exploitation of the majority black population continue unabated, hringing in their train untold human suffering and destruction. The racist regime shows no signs of readiness to engage in any dialogue with a view to a peaceful and just solution, terrorizing all opponents of apartheid. If this situation is allowed to continue, the road ahead will he stained with blood and strewn with calamity. For history has proved time and again that sword and fire cannot suppress the resolve and determination of a people to achieve its inalienable rights to self-determination, freedom and human dignity. The day cannot be far ahead when the evil system and policy of apartheid will come to an end. The auestion is, however, what price the people of South Africa is to pay for its freedom and human rights. Is it indeed true that the international community cannot take firm, joint action against the racist regime in Pretoria? The courageous struggle of the people of South ~frica and the stepping-up of international pressure are eroding the foundations of apartheid and seriously threatening the continued existence of the racist regime. Afraid that its final hour may be at hand, the racist regime has increased terror and repression in a vain attempt to cruell popular resistance in blood and suppress the rising tide of chanqe hy force. It has disguised in the flimsy legalistic ruse of the so-called state of emergency its wilful drive to eliminate physically all opposition to its policy. It kills, arrests and detains opponents of apartheid, including women and children. It has banned all forms of gatherings of the indigenous population. It encourages and provides police protection to self-styled vig ilantes, who harass and murder helpless black people. In a mindless effort to maintain its rule, it does not stop at anything, be it fra tricidal war or the bantustan iza tion of the country, thus denying the black people their citizenship. In a word, its policy is a policy of State terrorism and ruthless oppression of the majority black population. The same hand drenched in blood is holding Namibia in bondage, denying its people the ir right to freedom and independence. This very same hand of aggress ion attacks independent Afr ican countr ies of the region at any oppor tuni ty and at willj Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe are made to suffer at the hands of the racists in Pretoria, who are set on destabilizing those countries. Recently, non-aligned Angola has again been exposed to the full br unt of the wrath of the racists, who continue to occupy part of its territory. And, to distort the real issues, they are trying to turn sou thern Africa in to an arena of confronta tion between blocs and the struggle for spheres of influence and interest. The racist regime has openly stated that the elimination of all extra-parliamentary opposition in the country is the condition for the introduction of so-called reforms in the system of apartheid. How absurd and hypocritical, when we know that the so-called parliamentary system denies the vast majority of the population the basic right to vote. What the racists in Pretor ia are really in for is the preservation and strengthening of the system based on racial discrimination and the elimination of all opposition. Their protestations to the contrary are (Mr. Pejic, Yugoslavia) designed to hoodwink the international community and deflect its attention from South Africa's problems, and thus reduce international pressure on it. All the same, popular resistance in South Africa is growing. National liberation I1Pvements, trade unions, black workers' movements, students and youth, the Church and sections of the whi. te [X)pula tion continue the ir common struggle for freedom, self-determination and human rights. There is no terror that can suppress th is struggle. Along with other non-aligned countries, Yugoslavia has always supported the establishment of a non-racial ann derrocratic society in a united South Africa through political dialogue between the regime and genuine leader s of the major ity I;X>pulation. The conditions for the beginning of negotiations are the urgent and unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela; the lifting of the ban on the "lctivities of the African N'ltional Congress of South Africa, the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania and other political parties and organizations; the ending of restrictions on, and censorship of, news media; the 1 Hting of the so-called sta te of emergency; the withdrawal of troops from black townships; and the safe return of all political exiles and freedom-fighters. The increased international isolation of and the pressure on the regime i.n Pretoria are eEficient means by which the international community can influence change in South Africa. The voluntary sanctions, particularly those imposed by the countries that have maintained relations of co-operation with South Africa, have already been felt and are beginning to erode the economic and military foundations of the apar thei d regime. Yugoslavia considers that the comprehensive mandatory sanctions against the racist regime in Pretoria under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter are the most effective and the only remaining peaceful means for the elimination of the (Mr. Pejic, Yugoslavia) system of apartheid and the maintenance of peace in southern Afri·ca. This position is shared by the majority of other countries. HCMever, it is hard to understand, much less justify, the roc>tives of some important and influential factors that continue to display a lack of political readiness to join in the demand that resolute pressure be brought to bear upon the Sou th African regime. The arguments invoked against the imposition of mandatory sanctions and in favour of the so-called gradual reform of the system of apartheid are becoming· ever less convincing, even to the public opinion of the countries whose Governments advocate those arguments. Apartheid is a crime against humanity and a serious threat to in ternational peace and secur i ty - as has been sta ted many times from this rostrum. It can no longer be denied, even by those who maintain relations with the regime in South Africa, that that country is in serious danger of being engulfed by a mass bloodbath that could ignite the whole region in a general conflagration. Apartheid cannot be reformed, it has to be eradicated. The international community is therefore duty bound to stand united in its action aimed at eliminating apartheid, and it must not hesitate to take whatever measures it has at its disposal. The great moral and political responsibility in this regard must be shouldered by the countries that maintain close relations and co-opet:'ate with the regime in South Africa, particularly in the economic, military and nuclear fields. Unanimous support by the General Assembly would represent a concrete political contribu tion to the struggle against apartheid and racial discr imina tion in southern Africa. But all Member States must go beyond the mere expression of verbal solidarity with the oppressed people of South Africa. The legitimate liberation struggle waged by its liberation movements, recognized by the (Mr. Pejic, Yugoslavia) Africa and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania - needs concrete and efficient ass istance. As it has done in the past, Yugoslavia will continue to render full moral, material and political support and assistance to the struggle of the people of South Afr ica aga inst apar theid, racism, colonial ism and racial discrimination and for freedom, equality and human dignity. As a member of the Committee of the AFRICA Fund of non-aligned countries, Yugoslavia will work actively for the mob il iza tion of in terna tional a id to the victims of the aggress ion by the racist regime, the liberation movements and front-line States. In conclusion, I should like to express Yugoslavia's full support for the work of the Un i ted Na tions Special Conunittee aga inst Apartheid, which, under the leadership of Ambassador Joseph Garba, plays an important role in our joint efforts to eradicate apartheid and racial discrimination. Mr. HEPBURN (Bahamas): That the evil State-imposed system of institutionalized racial discrimination and segregation called apartheid has become known as "apart-hate" is not surprising. Neither is it surprising that the system, through aggression, intimidation and deprivation, tortures children and reduces entire races of people to sub-human levels. This system has also been referred to as being in a state of fear. The white South Africans are, in some respects, like the Germans before the Second World War - paralysed and held captive by fear that has been implanted in them. The apar theid s Y5 tern breeds a mind-set tha t leads the Pre tor ia Gover nment to commit atrocities without ruffling its conscience. Apartheid in these circumstances th G t t th It becomes the becomes a religion, the artery which gives e overnmen s reng . psychology of its people wh ich gives them cour age. It becomes the system which substitutes as a culture and gives meaning to their existence. (Mr. Pejic, Yugoslavia) The essence of apartheid is the repression of a majority of blacks; repression fed by anger and polar ization. One of the main reasons for that polar ization is an insular society, where all television, radio and a great deal of the newspapers are State-controlled. This regimentation has sorely affected the black s, par Hcular ly the young blacks, who are so conv inced of the purposelessness of the ir 1 ives tha t they are ready to die at the age of 10 or 12 rather than be debased. Apartheid anywhere is ugly. It should therefore be fought in any way possible. Whatever is done to increase awareness and help us to fix our gaze on the injustices of a sUffering people is a step in the right direction. Realizing the influence that an effectively educated electorate may have on Gover nment policy, education, training and information activities must be intensified and diversified. Assistance to movements fighting against apartheid, whether within South Africa or in other countries, should be increased. When the fiim "Cry Freedom" opened last week in the United States it prov ided another vehicle wi th which to launch an attack on apartheid and showed that the theatre of the performing arts serves as a significant vehicle to fight apartheid. In this struggle the temptation to despair l1'lay be the most destructive attitude for the international community to adopt. Instead, all attention should be focused on the greatest impact that its action is having against apartheid. In this light the recent release of Mr. Govan Mbeki, former national chairman of the banned African National Congress, who had spent more than two decades in pr ison, should be taken as a sign that the perpetrators of the Pretoria regime are not totally insensitive. It is therefore with a spirit of optimism that the international community and South African freedom fighters should pursue their efforts to effect majority rule. Our past experiences clearly demonstrate that it is not sufficient for the international community to recognize the inherent dangers to world peace or the denial of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms which the system of apartheid constitutes. Rather it is incumbent on Member States of this Organization to take appropriate action, both individually and collectively, to continue to bring pressure to bear on the South African Government to abandon its policy of apartheid, not in due course but as a matter of priority. Those who dr ag their feet on the impos i tion of comprehensive economic sanctions against South Africa have also suggested that sanctions would hurt black interests, both in South Africa and in the front-line States. It is in fact the privileged practitioners of apartheid who stand to lose the most, for the front-line Sta tes continue to show commendable will to make sacr ifices in the cause of freedom and justice. Although it is the efforts of the South African people themselves that form the primary resistance to racism and injustice, the international community must continue with its supportive efforts. Indeed, those efforts were highlighted recently, when on 6 November the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth nations offered military assistance to M:>zambique to protect railways, ports and other development projects against attack by South African rebels. That decision was made in October at a meeting of Commonwealth nations in Vancouver, British ColuntJia. My delegation can only hope that this is the beginning of a series of efforts to insulate the front-line States against the onslaught of South African aggression. Without protective measures, giving aid to Mozambique and other front-line States is like fattening sheep for the slaughter, since available finance goes to build new targets whi.ch the guerrillas destroy. But effectiveness of action against apartheid is directly related to the co-()rdination of these efforts. Isolationist, non-co-()perative activities can only prove detrimental to the cause and may indeed serve to step up destabilization efforts. Impossible as it may sound, all States have a responsibility, for, as the French poet Maurice Blanchot at tested, "all of us are gu ilty and respons ible when we do not voice a cry or an appeal aga inst apartheid". The adage that for everything there is a season should bring a ray of hope to those who suffer, both directly and indirectly, the effects of the apartheid regime. According to Donald Ward, a former South African newspaper editor: "In the long term the country of South Africa has a tremendous future because of the calibre of its people, both black and white. What is to be feared is the short-term future." When one looks at Africa as a whole, what one sees in so many cases where there have been whi te minorities and black majori ties is that the fears of the whites were unjustified. That is evidenced in such countries as Kenya, Zambia and Malawi and it is to be hoped that the same will hold true for Sou th Africa. The tragedy is that in each of those cases violence preceded sovereignty. Unanimity on the total question of action against apartheid is at this time unlikely, but if individual members of the international community would accept their shared respons ib ility in dismantl ing the system of apar theid through action there is no telling what could be accomplished. The late Pauli Murray - author, lawyer, activist, feminist, priest - wrote a very cOmpelling autobiography called Song in a Weary Throat. She talks poignantly of her experiences and efforts to combat racial discrimination and prejudice. She talks of hopes and dreams. The follCMing lines from one of her poems, "Dark Testament", read on the occasion of Dr. Martin King's funeral, sum up the thoughts I have expressed and leave a mandate for all of us~ "Then let the dream 1 inger on Let it be the test of nations. L:!t it be the quest of all our days, The fevered pounding of our blood, The measure of our souls - That none shall rest in any land And none return to dreamless sleep No heart be quieted, no tongue be stilled Until the final man may stand in any place And thrust his shoulders to the sky Friend and Brother to every man. It Mr. ALZAMORA (Peru) (interpretation from Spanish)~ A few days ago, in Robben Island pr ison in Johann~sburg, a shaft of light pierced the bars of the pr ison wher e the freedom of the South Afr ican people languishes~ the liberation of Govan Mbeki, the leader of the African National Congress, companion in arms of Nelson Mandela, after 20 years of imprisonment, a victory won in the struggle of his people, a victory for international action against apartheid on the path towards final victory, which will come about as a posthuoous tr ibute to the martyrs of SOweto and Sharpeville when the time comes for apartheid finally to be eradicated and when the South Afr iean people really become masters of their destiny in a non-racist, derocratic and just society. As we mention this victory, all enlightened voices throughout the world must be raised to demand that the liberation of Govan Mbeki be extended to Nelson Mandela, Zephania Mothopeng and all other political prisoners which the Pretoria regime is holding contrary to international law, morality and human dignity. In 1946, for the first time, the United Nations considered the racist South African policy in a situation which truly constituted one of history's ironies. The United Nations - which had emerged from the ruins of a war of which racism was one of the most inhuman components - just one year after the victory and the consolidation of peace, was at its very first session faced with the resurgence of racism, this time racism institutionalized in southern Africa. Since then 41 years have passed - the whole life so far of our Organlzation - and there has been some progress in the struggle. The racist regime has become increasingly isolated; considerable progress has been achieved in tne partial application of sanctions; there has been a mandatory arms embargo, an obligation for all Member States~ and there has been broad universal support for the South African liberation movements. The South African people itself has made the major contribution to this struggle, and for four years, with its own blood, it has built up resistance to oppression and cleared the path to final victory. The struggle against apartheid is now universal. The anti-colonial struggle waged by all the peoples of the world is a contemporary cause that has mobilized a vast world movement. It has mobilized States, churches, trade unions and intellectual pUblic organizations of all kinds, regardless of nationality, language, race, political leanings and social classes. The anti-apartheid struggle is world-wide. This is its strength, and this makes it certain that history will crown it with SUCcess. Even so, we must face another objective reality today. The racist regime continues to exist as does the apartheid system. South African society, because of the Land Act, the Group Areas Act and the population Registration Act, continues to be the only society in the world in which human rights are violated institutionally: when human rights are violated in South Africa, it is not because people have failed to obey the law but because the law has been applied. Although it may seem incredible, the legal edifice which is the base of apartheid is designed to regulate systematically the violation of the human rights of 28 million human beings - a sui generis case where the law has emerged from the State to deprive more than 85 per cent of the population of their fundamental rights and freedoms. Thus the struggle against apartheid is not merely political. It is essentially a struggle for human rights, an ethical and moral struggle to which political, military or strategic expedienc.:y must be subordinated. 'l'his is how the peoples of the world understand it, and through their anti-apartheid organizations, in industrialized societies and in the developing world, they have succeeded in making parliaments more aware, and they have adopted partial sanctions. They are important, but they are not enough. Sanctions constitute a legitimate and appropriate instrument under the United Nations Charter for the solution of conflicts and the maintenance of international peace and security. In the case of South Africa, we all know that the reasons for the urgent application of sanctions are clear and precise. The South African regime has added to the crime of apartheid its illegal and colonialist occupation of Namibia, its failure to abide by the provisions of Security Council resolutions, ana its continued aggression against the front-line States. I South Africa is punishing the front-line States through armed aggression and the boycotting of commercial routes, which seriously affects their economic .structures. We thus witness a new paradox. While the South African regime is ~utting into effect coercive measures in violation of international law and is with impunity committing aggression against the front-line States, the international community, the United Nations, is unable to apply coercive legal measures because exercise of the veto in the Security Council keeps preventing this. For all those reasons, it is urgently necessary for the United Nations to adopt the decisions necessary to ensure that consular and diplomatic relations with South Africa are terminated, and that no new such relations are established; that the arms embargo against South Africa is appliea without exception; that economic and financial co-operation with South Africa is endedJ and that any kind of military or nuclear co-operation with the South African regime is suspended. It is no longer possible to be ambiguous about this. It is not acceptable to have a double standard in a situation which is an affront to the very concept of human dignity. Until the Security Council adopts comprehensive mandatory sanctions against South Africa, the struggle will always be limited and the bloodshed will increasingly weigh upon many consciences. The Government of Peru firmly believes that the veto policy against the freedom and dignity of the South African people is an egregious political and historical error, for it cannot be said that we condemn apartheid when we continue to give political, economic and diplomatic support to the very Government committing that crime against humanlty. The Government of Peru is aware of thiS reality. As a non-aligned country and a member of the Special Committee against Apartheid, and consistent with its own Constitution which, by mandate of its people, enshrines the princi~le of stru9g1~ against racism and solidarity with oppressed peoples throughout the world, Peru once again expresses its firm support and backing for the adoption of comprehensive mandatory sanctions against South Africa. The struggle against apartheid is the struggle against racism. Practically all countries represented here have participated in this fight against the debasement of human dignity, and on four continents outstanding men have offered up their lives on the altar of this cause. Therefore, as we energetically demand the freeing of Nelson Mandela and all political prisoners in South Afrlca, as we reiterate our commitment to the campaign against apartheid, we must pay a tribute to all who have not yielded in their struggle, even in the face of death itself. Their image and their words are present in the clash of arms which continues to this day; sooner rather than later, their memory will receive the tribute of certain victory in South Africa. Mr. OTT (German Democratic Republic): After the Soweto uprising in 1976, the great son of the oppressed South African people, Nelson Mandela, addressed a message to all patriots of his country. with great difficulty, it was smuggled out of Robben Island prison. Although written behind prison walls, it contains a very accurate analysis of the situation prevailing in South Africa at that time. The document reflects the firm belief that the just and united struggle of the masses against the apartheid regime will lead to victory. Today, that is 10 years later, the message is as relevant and significant as ever. One passage reads as follows: r liThe soil of our country is destined to be the scene of the fiercest fight and the sharpest battles to rid our continent of the last vestiges of white minority rule. liThe world is on our side. The OAU and the United Nations and the anti-apartheid movement continue to put pressure on the racist rulers of our country. Every effort to isolate South Africa adds strength to our struggle. At all levels of our struggle, within and outside the country, much has been achieved and much remains to be done. But victory is certain." The world is on our side. That is a clear and plain statement. We interpret it to mean two things: as a tribute to all progressive forces that render active solidarity to the South African people and support its struggle against apartheid, and as a call for redoubling the efforts towards a speedy elimination of that anti-human system. The road to that goal is mapped out in the message, namely, to isolate the regime in South Africa. That demand is today more urgent than ever, for the situation in southern Africa has grown worse and worse. We cannot but note with concern that the terror of the South African regime inside the country and its aggressiveness across its borders have increased further. The apartheid system constitutes the main obstacle to the peaceful and prosperous development of the peoples in the region. It poses a growing threat to international peace and security. The documents of various United Nations organs and specialized agencies contain indisputable evidence illustrating the escalation of the anti-human policy of apartheid and Violence. The recent report of the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid demonstrates that the rights of the non-white population in South Africa are constantly being trampled upon. The ruling minority uses them only as cheap labour and as an object of exploitation. Its response to any resistance is murder, imprisonment and arbitrary action by the police. Nor do the racists spare women and children. But the report of the Special Committee also describes how the struggle against these mass violations of human rights by the apartheid regime has grown in strength both inside and outside South Africa. My delegation would like to thank the Special Committee against Apartheid and its Chairman, Ambassador Joseph Garba, for the outstanding contribution they have made in mobilizing world public opinion in support of actions against the Pretoria regime. Under the conditions of a tightened state of emergency and the general mobilization of the army and the police, phoney elections were held in South Africa on 6 May this year, from which four fifths of the popUlation were excluded. Entitled to vote were only 3 million whites, which reveals the absurd character of the elections. Botha's idea was to obtain the blessing of the white mlnority for i ~f his policy of apartheid and terror, which he disguises by promises of reforms. But the massive protest strike on election day, observed by some 1.5 million black workers and more than 500,000 students and school children, has demonstrated that the deprived majority of the South African people will not allow themselves to be intimidated, neither by bogus elections nor by persistent State terrorism, and that the future of the country belongs to them. Another manifestation along these lines was the powerful strike of South African miners last August. They showed that the oppressed popUlation constitutes, when united in action, a major factor in the struggle for the eradication of apartheid and is willing to make great sacrifices in order to put an end to the inhuman system. Significantly enough, it was also transnational corporations, beside South African ones, which used most brutal methods to suppress the strike. They are accomplices in the crimes of apartheid. Despite the increased terror of the racist regime, the activities of the opponents of apartheid have steadily grown in scope and significance, and more and more realistically-minded whites are joining their ranks. An eloquent example was furnished last July, when a representative group of white South Africans met in Dakar with representatives of the African National Congress of South Africa (ANe) to discuss ways for a peaceful solution to the problems in South Africa and specific aspects of joint action towards eliminating apartheid. My Government regards that meeting as an encouraging step in the right direction. It has indicated possibilities for overcoming apartheid by political means. Furthermore, it manifested the resolve of the ANC to seek ways towards a democratic, non-racial alternative together with all South Africans who are ready and willing to do so. I have already pointed to the growing external aggressiveness of the regime. We have learned with strong indignation of the ongoing agyression of the racists against Angola, perpetrated from illegally occupied Namibia, and of the massive concentration of South African troops at the border of the People's Republic. For the first time, Pretoria had to acknowledge what the entire world already ~nows, that it is fighting on the side of the UNITA bandits in Angola. This new aggression, as well as constant attacks by South African commandos against other front-line States, and the massacres perpetrated by gangs in Mozambique prove that the entire southern Africa cannot find peace as long as the apartheid system continues to exist. South Africa's policy of aggression and destabilization against the States in the region have had appalling consequences. According to very recent information from the southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC), this policy caused damage to the front-line States totalling $US 28 billion between 1980 and 1986. The aims of the racists are obvious: to halt" the wheels of history by means of blackmail and the use of military force and to prevent the front-line States from pursuing an independent road of development and displaying solidarity with the national liberation struggle. In the light of this situation, a heavy responsibility lies with those imperialist forces who to this day have backed the Pretoria regime in many ways. Transnational corporations have proved to be reliable allies of the racist regime and a factor which secures the maintenance of the apartheid system. Our times require action-oriented political will also by those who so far have collaborated with the regime in Pretoria in various fields. A few western countries have already imposed limited sanctions against the apartheid regime. We welcome such actions, but we must state that they have not yet assumed a scope which would prevent the regime from persisting with its repressive policies. The key issue is and remains the imposition of comprehensive mandatory sanctions under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. The negative vote of Western States against such sanctions in the Security Council supports the apartheid regime and avoids its isolation, which would Inean its collapse. Also the recent OAU summit meeting called on the permanent Western members of f the Security Council and South Africa's other main trading partners to apply comprehensive mandatory sanctions. 1 The principled position of my country was restated by the Head of State of the German Democratic Republic, Erich Honecker, when he met with ANC President Oliver Tambo on 10 November in Berlin. Erich Honecker pledged the firm determination of the German Democratic Republic to continue its active endeavours for peace and to work together with all countries which are ready to do so for a peaceful political settlement of all conflicts and disputes. In the future also we shall, within the limits of our possibilities, give assistance and solidarity to the independent States and liberation movements in southern Africa in their struggle for peace and social progress, the elimination of apartheid, the establishment of a united, democratic and non-racial South Africa and independence for Namibia. What Nelson Mandela predicted will come to pass. Mr. ALATAS (Indonesia): The Assembly is taking up the question of apartheid at a time when the spectre of all-out racial conflagration is looming ever more menacingly over South Africa. The situation internally and in southern Africa as a whole has deteriorated to such a degree that a human tragedy of unthinkable proportions appears inevitable. Unless drastic and swift action is taken, therefore, all efforts to bring persuasion and negotiation to bear On the solution of the problem may soon be eclipsed. This sense of foreboding shared throughout the world points up the urgent need to dismantle the obnoxious apartheid system and replace it by a non-racial and democratic order while conditions for peacefUl transformation still exist. It is important to recognize that what has been happening in South Africa for the past three years signals a qualitative change in the cycle of brutal repression and heroic but scattered resistance which for decades has characterized the situation in that tormented land. South African society today is in the throes of an unprecedented upheaval, caught up in a nation-wide uprising pitting the embattled racist minority against the increasingly consolidated black majority, pitting the most modern weaponry of State terror against the most powerful, universal ideals of freedom, social justice and human dignity. Indeed, the Pretoria regime has been so shaken by the sustained resistance that in June of this year it saw no alternative but to reimpose the state of emergency for the third time in as many years. The resultant carnage unleashed by the regime1s security forces under cover of the draconian emergency measures has been chronicled in graphic detail by the Special Committee against Apartheid. Its annual report to the General Assembly makes gruesome reading as it describes the lengths to Which the rulers of a morally and politically bankrupt regime are prepared to go in their desperate attempts to perpetuate a repugnant doctrine and system of racial bigotry and discrimination. Pretoria's stepped-up assault on all forms of opposition in the country is reflected in the sharp increase in arbitrary mass arrests, detentions without charge or trial, lynchings by so-called vigilante groups, torture and other acts of State-induced violence and intimidation. As a result, the death-toll of innocents, including women and children, has now reached genocidal proportions. Yet the report also reveals that the escalated fury and brutality of the racist regime has failed to stem the rising tide of popular rebellion. Today, the l ( opposition in South Africa is better co-ordinated and more integrated than ever before, and the trade unions, student and youth associations, religious institutions and various grass-roots organizations are welding into one irresistible wave of resistance. Moreover, a new level of organized militancy has manifested itself across a broad cross-section of the black majority, under the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa and the Pan movements, which have always been in the vanguard of the struggle for the total eradication of apartheid. Clearly, the myth of the monolithic might of the Pretoria regime has been punctured and its reliance on brute military force can no longer subdue the revolutionary fervour of black South Africa. Pretoria's repressive and bellicose policies and practices are not confined within South Africa's own borders but are spreading destruction and death in the ,surrounding region as well. Apart from keeping 100,000 troops in Namibia to maintain its illegal occupation and exploitation of the Territory, it persists in incessant acts of aggression, subversion and destabilization against the front-line States, including its continued military occupation of parts of southern Angola. In this context, I shall refer only to the recently published report of the United Nations Children's Fund (ULIlICEF) entitled "Children on the front line", which provides a heart-rending account of the barbarity with which the racist regime is prosecuting its undeclared war in southern Africa. The report notes that 'South Africa is directly and indirectly responsible for the harrowing death of 535,000 Angolan and Mozambican children under the age of five and that the lives of a further 15 million in the front-line States and other neighbouring countries are in imminent jeopardy as a result of the military strikes and the acts of economic reprisals and sabotage inflicted by Pretoria and its surrogate forces in the region. Moreover, countless additional lives are endangered by the extensive destruction of the agricultural and other developmental infrastructures that is taking place in the independent States of southern Africa. These facts and figures only confirm the stark reality that Pretoria is bent on entrenching its military hegemony and intensifying its economic domination over the entire region of southern Africa. We know that there are those who argue that gradually, over the years, the PLetoria regime has instituted certain changes and improvements in the system and, that such incremental reforms should be encouraged. In this regard, they point, inter alia, to the relaxation or abolition of certain laws, the proclamation of the constitutional power-sharing plan, and the recent introduction of so-called betterment schemes in some black communities and townships.• r However, given the regime's blood-stained record of unrelenting internal repression and external aggression, its arrogant intransigence and unrepentant duplicity, we fully share the view of the black majority that these purported reforms are nothing more than cynical attempts to blunt their resistance temporarily, to co-opt certain segments of the population and aga in to dece ive the in ternational communi ty. The abolition of the Immorality and Mixed Marriages lIct, the suspension of the pass laws, the proposed so-called National Statutory Council and other cosmetic changes have not altered and will not in any way alter the basic precepts of apartheid, such as are enbodied in the Race Classification Act, the population Registration lIct, the Group Areas Act, the bantustan and homelanas policy and the fundamental ideology of racial and ethnic separateness or segregation. Although it has been stated time and again, it bears repeating that a system as intrinsically inhuman and unjust as apartheid cannot be reformed and must be eradicated in its totality. As for those among us who still bel ieve that the Pretor ia regime could be approached with reason and ra tionali ty or "cons tructively engaged" in persuading it to transform itself, the same recora shows that such an approach, far from causing South Africa to relent, has, on the contrary, only emboldened the racist regime, in its stubborn defiance of wor Id censure, to manipulate these contacts for its own devious ends. In a society where race is made the supreme determinant of political power and legal order I we cannot hope to move its rulers by moral outrage or persuasion alone. Like others, we have welcomed the recent release of f-tr. G:>van Mbeki and four other political prisoners. We view this development as constituting at least a taci t admission by Pretor ia that its div ide-and-rule tactics have consistently failed to erode the support of the oppressed masses for their national liberation (Mr. Alatas, rndones ia) movements. If Pretoria expects us to attach real significance to this action it will have to demonstrat.e that this is but. a first step~ for Nelson Mandela, who has come to syrrbolize the indomitable struggle of the black majority against racist bondage, is still in pr is on , as he has been for a quarter of a century. We shall therefore continue to insist on his inunediate and unconditional release, as well as that of Zephania Methopeng and all other pol itical deta inees and v ictims of the infamous Internal Security Act. Only by lifting the state of emergency, removing the ban against the national liberation movements and allowing the return into society of the freedom fighters and all poli Heal exiles can conditions be created conducive to mean ingful dialogue and negotia tions between the regime and the authentic leaders of the oppressed people. We have been likewise encouraged to note some positive trends in the global campaign for sanctions against apartheid South Africa. In recent years even States which had earlier opposed such measures have to varying degrees adopted selective sanctions and voluntary embargoes. Initially, these actions, taken by countries with close ties with South Africa, were viewed as significant moves signalling a readiness finally to abandon the narrow self-interests and short-term economic considerations that have so far guided the policies of their Governments. But when the Security Council convened last February, in order to build further on the specific economic sanctions set for th in its resolution 569 (1985) and to bring together under a single resolution all the sanctions already imposed individually by Member States, this limited proposal was again vetoed by two permanent member sta tes of th e Counc i1. This deplorable development indicates that those States had no intention of following through on their own decisions and that their unilateral measures were undertaken as an exercise to placate public opin ion or to forestall perhaps more meaningful sanctions, for they know as well as we do that South Africa's apartheid structure will not yield to half-hearted gestures and piecemeal measures. My Government has long been convinced that the imposition of comprehens ive manda tory sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations remains the only effective means to bring a peaceful end to apartheid. Now is the time to apply maximum political pressure on those still reluctant to cease all political, military and economic support of the racist regime. As a member of the Special Committee aga inst Apar theid, the Council for Namib ia and also the newly created Intergovernmental Group to Monitor the Supply of oil and Petroleum Products to South Afr iea, Indones ia is fUlly conuni tted to wor king in concert with the international community to achieve the total isolation of the Pretor ia regime. The drive for a comprehensive programme of sanctions must be accompanied by increased political, material and other support for the people of South Africa and Namibia and their liberation movements in their legitimate struggle against racist and colonial oppression. Equally, the front-line States are paying a heavy price for their indispensable and laudable role in that struggle and should be provided wi th the means to lessen the ir vuln er ab ility to the mili tary and economic press ures of the racist regime. In addition to the existing united Nations funds and programmes, such assistance should also be channeled through the Southern Africa Development Co-ordination Conference as well as the AFRI~ Fund, recently established by the eighth summit meeting of non-aligned countries, at Harare. The United Nations is faced with the grave responsibility of averting a ca tastrophe of monumental proportions in sou thern Africa. Given the drama tic \deterioration of the situation in South Africa, the sole responsibility for which must be borne by the Pretoria regime, the only course left to bring South Africa to (Mr. Alatas, Indonesia) its senses is the applica tion of strong and effective sanctions. We should 1 ike to believe, indeed we fervently hope, that the prospect for a peaceful dismantling of apartheid and the establishment of a non-racial, deJrocratic and unified South Africa is still within our reach~ but this can be assured only if South Africa can be compelled to abandon its present course and finally heed the expressed will of the overwhelming majority of mankind. Mr. ARNOUSS (syrian Arab Republic) (interpretation from Arabic) ~ The General Assembly is once again this year debating the policies and practices of the apartheid system applied in South Africa against the heroic Azanian people by the Pretoria regime. The policy of apartheid, or racial segregation, is not merely a humiliation of the dignity of man, it is not merely a denial of morals, religion and civilization) it is a crime no less dangerous in its contents and repercussions than the crime of nazism or indeed any other ideology based on the principle of the supremacy of a race, a religion or a civilization over others. >.1 If the international community found it within itself to try the criminals of nazism and to condemn them to death for their crimes perpetrated against mankind based on their ideology of·the supremacy of their race, why does it now procrastinate when it comes to trying the criminals of apartheid and punishing them for the crimes they perpetrate against the African people based on their ideology of the supremacy of their race and their colour. The call for whites-only elections in May 1987 was merely a new reaffirmation of that ideology of racial Supremacy~ The Security Council has met many times since the previous debate by the General 'Assembly on this item. Last year fUlly half of the Security Council meetings were devoted to the situation in South Africa and to pre-empting and c6ntaining South Africa's aggression against neighbouring African States ann its abhorrent practice of apartheid. The world continues to follow the explosive events inside South Africa and the escalating revolt against the system of racial segregation. The revolt is by all sectors of the South African population; it is a revolt against injustice, colonialism, exploitation and slavery, a revolution aimed at reuniting the country and eradicating the apartheid regime; it is a revolt in which the people resort to all available means, including armed and underground secret struggle through their national liberation movements. ~he international community considers apartheid to be a crime against mankind. The policy of apartheid practised by the South African regime is a source of tension, instability and strife. It is a policy which threatens international peace and security. The Pretoria regime has attempted to suffocate opposition by extending the state of emergency, creating an atmosphere of terror and panic and carrying out acts of detention and arrest. The current painful situation inside (Mr. Arnouss, Syrian Arab Republic) South Africa requires speedy action to face up to the deteriorating situation in southern Africa as a whole. Last year the only development was an escalation of violence accompanied by propaganda and political manoeuvres aimed at perpetuating the illusion that apartheid was reformable. The fact of the matter is that apartheid cannot be reformed~ it must be uprooted. The persistence of the oppressed majority in its struggle against repression and exploitation and against the denial of its right to full self-determination was met by the racist regime with arbitrary arrest and detention without trial, shocking massacres and arbitrary death sentences against militants for freedom, which has led to many victims inside the country. The report of the Special Committee mentions the following: "Under cover of the emergency, the basic laws of apartheid are being enforced against blacks in a variety of spheres. In 1986, for instance, about 64,000 Africans were forcibly removed, compared with 40,000 in 1985~ nearly 100,000 Africans were arrested for trespassing in 1986 The removal of African communities is being achieved by a combination of intimidation, political disorganization, coercion and vigilante action. Its ultimate goal, is to consolidate the 'homelands', to create geographically cohesive and ethnically based entities and ultimately to deprive Africans of their birth-right citizenship." (A/42/22, para. 24) The report further mentions that 40 per cent of the 30,000 detainees since June 1986 were children of 18 years or younger. Black children have become the target of violent oppression by the racist apartheid regime. Among the detainees for the month of August alone there were 300 to 500 children of not more than 12 years of age. Those children were seriously injured. They were tortured using electric shocks and tear gas and whips were used against them. Indeed, some died because of their injuries under torture. Many of those children bore the marks of this torture for more than eight months. Some were burned by the police forces using boiling water and burning plastic. On another front, and in keeping with Pretoria's strategy to dominate the region, South Africa has continued, and indeed has intensified, its acts of aggression and destabilization against neighbouring States, aimed at weakening their economies, perpetuating their dependence on South Africa, using them as hostages to lessen outside pressures, preventing them from supporting the freedom fighters and bodily liquidating those very freedom fighters. What is more, South Africa has resorted to using assassination squads to kidnap those freedom fighters from neighbouring States and kill them. There were repeated acts of aggression by ~outh Africa against Angola in barbaric raids launched from occupied Namibia, using its territory as an illegal springboard for aggression against Angola. Furthermore, we can point to the acts of aggression against Mozambique and Botswana and attempts to destabilize Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. All these are clearly set out in the Special Committee's report to which I referred. The continuing existence of these racist exploitative regimes is not due to the capabilities of these artificial entities as much as it is due to the encouragement and support these regimes received from some major Powers and other similar racist regimes which play the same role in other parts of the world. Those racist regimes would not have been able to persist in defying the international community for all these years and would not have been able to continue violating (Mr. Arnouss, Syrian Arab Republic) the united Nations Charter and the principles of international and humanitarian law without the economic and militar.y support and assistance - both covert and overt - of some western states and other racist regimes. (Mr. Arnouss, syrian Arab Republic) It is indeed laughable that States which collaborate with the regime in South Africa claim that they are against the policies of apartheid or, indeed, that they condemn those policies, while at the same time they feel no shame in providing the Pretoria regime with a permanent lifeline of supplies and assistance. This enables it to persist in its apartheid policy and breaches the isolation imposed on it by the United Nations and peace-loving States. The States which collaborate with Pretoria, indeed, are allied with it, claim that they do not collaborate with it as Governments, but that, they are unable to stop commercial companies or private institutions co-operating with it. Israel takes pride of place among States that collaborate with the racist regime in Pretoria. The alliance between Israel and South Africa, apart from the fact that they are both bridgeheads of imperialism in two of the most important strategic areas in the third world springs from the fact that they are firmly linked by the ideologies of the two racist regimes and the similarity of their conditions and philosophy in the Middle East and southern Africa. The theory of racial supremacy in South Africa is very similar to the zionist theory of religious supremacy. Zionists, like the Afrikaners, feel that they are chosen people, whatever the difference in the basis of the choice - racial supremacy, perhaps, for the Afrikaners, while it is both religious and ethnic supremacy for the Zionists. Those two regimes were implanted in two different regions by settler invasion at the expense of the original inhabitants, who, because of those racist attacks, were either uprooted and dispersed or subjected to oppression, domination and life under foreigners who mete out the worst possible kinds of reppression and racial and religious discrimination. It is pointed out in the special report of the Special Committee against Apartheid (A/42/22/Add.ll that Israel is South Africa's largest arms supplier, with (Mr. Arnouss, ~yrian Arab Republic) annual two-way sales worth more than 1,000 million rand. Strategically more important, however, is the secret technical, intelligence and research co-operation between the two countr ies' arms industries. Their weapons systems are virtually identical. For example, the Scorpion ship-to-ship missile is directly copied from the Israeli Gabriel missile. The Cheetah fighter, which is an improved model copied by south Africa from the Mirage III aircraft, incorporates electronics developed when Israel upgraded its Mirage aircraft to produce the Kfir fighter. Altah, a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), built the navigationa~ system of the Cheetah fighter. IAI itself built the weapons system of that fighter. The same goes for the engine of the Cheetah aircraft, called Atar 9, which can be traced directly to Israel. A press report mentioned, further, that Israel sells between 1.26 and 1.6B billion rand worth of arms a year to South Africa. We are convinced that the measures mentioned in the special report as being imposed by Israel against South Africa are merely propaganda measures, aimed at covering up the large-scale covert co-operation between the two racist regimes. Despite the fact that those measures are referred to in the special report, the members of the Special Committee concluded that those steps have bilateral dimensions and contain many loopholes. They are steps limited by eKceptions. For eKample, it is still possible to make new investments in South Africa on an eKceptional basis; Israeli banks may continue to grant loans to South Africa; the importation of iron and steel will not stop; and cultural ties will continue as long as they are not contrary to Israel's basic negative view of the apartheid regime. There is no mention of standing contracts in the military, nuclear and scientific fields. Furthermore, the report says that it is not clear 60 far to what extent Israel will implement those declared measures. And those steps allo~ (Mr. Arnouss, Syrian Arab Republic) Israel to continue covert military sales to South Africa on the same conditions as before, because Israel has not declared a date for the end of those highly secret arms sales contracts. Furthermore, it has not clarified the fate of previous contracts which are still standing. The world will see that no matter what concessions are made to imperialism and racist regimes they will merely become more hard-headed and demand more. This will be perfectly clear when we come to vote on the draft resolutions under this item and when the question of their implementation arises. My delegation believes that mandatory sanctions are the only language that Pretoria will understand. The international community must take immediate decisive action to that end. Until it does, those peoples which are not being fairly treated by the United Nations have no choice but to continue their struggle to regain their usurped rights. The peoples whose land has been occupied by force have no other recourse than to continue their struggle to liberate their country. This is a legitimate right enshrined in the Charter. Syria condemns the collaboration between the two racist regimes. We condemn all forms of collaboration with the Pretoria regime. We support the struggle of the Azanian people, under the leadership of the Pan Africanist Congress and the African National Congress for its liberation and the eradication of the apartheid regime. The Syrian Arab Republic and its people have always supported the struggle of peoples for liberation in every battle fought by those peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America, because we are convinced that the struggle for freedom is indiVisible and that the victory of one liberation movement in one part of the third world must have direct repercussions on the struggle of other peoples elsewhere in the third world. On this basis we have consistently supported and shall continue to support with all the means available to us the African liberation movements in Azania and Namibia. We shall continue to do so until freedom dawns in that important part of the world and until the African and Arab peoples are rid of those racist regimes~ until the racist regimes collapse one after the other under the blows of the national liberation forces in the Arab and African world. Human dignity will prevail and freedom will ultimately dawn, however long the night of injustice. Mr. PITARKA (Albania): The question the General Assembly has now taken up for consideration is not new; we have all tne facts about it. For years on end, the racist regime of South Africa, in this very Hall and in other international forums, has been placed in the dock for pursuing a savage policy and preserving the apartheid system. With the same, undiminished indignation, the delegation of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania once again takes part in the discussion of this agenda item at the current session of the General Assembly. The situation in Azania is indeed tragic and difficult to put into words. The ruling apartheid system has deprived the masses of the people of even the most elementary rights. Despite the severe censorship imposed by the racist authorities, they have failed to prevent world public opinion from learning about the situation prevailing there. The infornlation reaching the outside world makes the blood run cold. It attests to the fact that violence and terror are permanent characteristics of everyday life in Azania. Massive oppression has been elevated into law. The fascists of South Africa stop at nothing in pursuing their racist policy. They shoot and massacre innocent people, demonstrators and strikers, no matter how peaceful they may be. During this year alone, world public opinion has been made aware of countless such crimes perpetrated against the ~zanian population. The streets of cities in various regions of the country have again been washed in the blood of hundreds of innocent people, who condemn and demand the overthrow of the rule of the racist white minority. The ferocity to which the South African racists have lately been resorting against the Azanian people is in no way proof of the strength and stability of the regime in power. On the contrary, the ever-more-extensive use of sanguinary violence is evidence that the Pretoria ruling circles are feeling the blows dealt by the resistance and the wrath of an entire people, which cannot be permanently kept under the rule of oppression and racial contempt, enclosed in bantustans whioh are nothing but concentration camps of our modern times. Likewise, the blood shed in the streets cannot enable the South African racists to strengthen their positions. For sure, they can disperse one demonstration, stop a certain strike and imprison thousands of people, but - as indeed is now happening - this will make the reaction of the broad masses of the peoples stronger. Bloodshed expands hatred, violence generates opposition, poverty and exploitation increase protests. History bears witness to the fact that this has happened wherever reactionary, racist and fascist regimes have been in power. The racist regime of south Africa is no exception. The obstinacy with which the South African racist regime pursues its polioty of apartheid has been, in the present debate too, the target of condemnation in the statements of many representatives, especially those of the African countries. Against that background, there is talk of the imposition of sanctions against that regime, of the banning of arms exports to South Africa and of the termination of the granting of facilities for manufacturing armaments. Basic logic and, in particular, justice demand that no ties be maintained with such a criminal regime, which, in opposition to all moral values and the norms of international law and the decisions adopted by this forum, nas for decades been massacring an entire people, which keeps under occupation another country, Namibia, and which commits aggression against other African countr1es. Those acting otherwise, those who assist and collaborate with that regime are consciously collaborating in crime. Regrettably, this just and lawful demand by progressive world public opinion, repeated in the General Assembly year after year, does not appear to affect the Pretoria racists. And that is in no way an accident. The fulfilment of this lawful demand has been torpedoed and is still being undermined by the imperialist ~owers, by monopoly capital and, primarily, by United States imperialism. Thanks to. their all-round political, economic and military aid, Pretoria not only has managed to maintain a powerful military machine, but also has become a significant manufacturer of armaments of different kinds. International imperialism - and United States imperialism first and foremost - will not give up support of and collaboration with South Africa's racist regime, because of the vital interests it has in the region. Therefore, the role that regime ~lays in defending these interests greatly benefits United States imperialism. It is precisely that regime that has opened wide the doors to the influx of Western monopoly capital, that has put up for sale at auction the vast natural assets of Azania and Namibia, that is supplying the monopolies with cheap labour. Furthermore, it is this imperialist gendarme of Africa that creates tension in the entire southern part of the continent, that attacks Mozambique, Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe and so forth. When one analyses the policy and activities of the Pretoria regime in the southern part of Africa, it is not difficult to realize that its opportunities of pursuing its brutal and arrogant policy are vastly enhanced by the imperialist rivalry of the two super-Powers - the United States of America and the Soviet Union - for expansion and spheres of influence in the African continent. The racist politicians have long been aware and are artfully making use of the intentions and the rivalry of the super-Powers. In the same way, the latter try to take advantage of the troubled and unstable situation created in that region by the racists of the Pretoria regime and use it as an excuse for interference, not infrequently availing themselves of the hardships imposed on some of the Afr ican countr ies. "Constructive engagement" on the part of Washington and MOscow's "internationalism" have a common denominator: imperialist expansion for domination and hegemony. In tracing Africa's history - which it is not an overstatement to say drips with blood - one cannot but feel optimistic that both the Namibian and Azanian peoples, suffering from the same common enemy, will some day break the chains of the savage racist yoke and overthrow the sanguinary rule of the racist white minority, as their African ancestors did in the past. This optimism is not unfounded. The Azanian and Namibian peoples are expanaing their resistance against the South African racists on a daily basis. The inhuman violence, the atrocious crimes, which do not spare even children, have not weakened the broad masses of the peoples of those countries. Azania and Namibia are seething with the present powerful tide of the people's fight and protests. On the other hand, progressive world public opinion, in Africa in particular, has not remained indifferent to the events unfolding in South Africa. They are denounc~ng the South African racists, forcing them to acknowledge the ever-tighter isolation imposed upon them and their imperialist patrons. The struggle of the Namibian and Azanian peoples enjoys the resolute support and encouragement of all the African peoples and all the other peoples of the world. The Albanian people and their Government have constantly followed with concern the situation in Namibia and Azania and have condemnen with profound indignation the policy of racial discrimination and aparthein implemented by the South African regime. They have not on a single occasion failed to denounce the cruel genocide and inhuman oppression practised against the peoples of that area by the apartheid system and the aggressive policy it pursues against the other independent African countries. Our view is that peace and stahility will be restored in Azania and Namibia, in South Africa as a whole, only when apartheid is abolished, when this abhorrent blot has been erased from Africa's map. The delegation of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania avails itself of this opportunity to salute the resolute struggle of the Azanian and Namibian peoples, their sacrifices and determination to crown their struggle in final victory. As always, the Albanian people is in full solidarity with their struggle against the sanguinary regime of South Africa. They will always side with their lawful efforts to gain freedom and independence and will never fail to voice its opinion in defence of their just cause. Mr. WOOLCOTT (Australia): South Africa today is on the very brink of a massive - but, it is to be hoped, still avoidahle - tragedy. A combination of entrenched economic and political privilege, defiance, short-sightedness, unwarranted fears and a stubborn refusal to grasp opportunities for peaceful change have led it to this unenviahle impasse. Australia remains convinced that apartheid is at the very centre of the malevolent web of increasing violence and misery within South Africa itself, of the defiant obstruction of Namihia's independence and of South Africa's efforts to intimidate and destahilize its African neighbours. Another year has passed since this Assemh1y last considered the apartheid item. It has been a sombre and oppressive year for South Africa's people. The whole country remains under a state of emergency. Massive unrest continues in black and so-called Coloured townships, while the Government continues to entrench its position and to implement its bantustan policies. For all South Africa's talk of reform, there is indeed very little by way of deeds from which we might draw some hope. In the face of this continuing oppression and massive disregard for human rights, it is important both to note and to pay tribute to the efforts by South Africans of all races to challenge their Government's policies and to call for fundamental change. In the face of the violence meted out to them, some of them have felt compelled to resort to violence. My Government does not condone resort to force and violence as a matter of pr inciple, hut it will not condemn them for so doing. We understand the frustration and bitterness they must feel as a result of South Africa's repressive and unyielding political, social and economic climate. Indeed) it would be surprising if those who were being repressed failed to take a determined stand against their misguided rulers.* It is clear that the struggle is at present one-sided - not in moral terms, of course, but because of the military and para-military power arrayed against the people of South Africa. That is why one cannot expect the people of South Africa themselves to bear the brunt of the ~truggle unaided. The insidious nature of the apartheid system is no longer an internal problem: it is a moral problem with universal dimensions and its resolution will reauire the efforts of the international community. The experience of the last 30 years has shown that only *Mr. !caza Gallard (Nicaragua), Vice-President, took the Chair. the strongest possible international pressure can be expected to bring about a genuine change in South Africa. Change has been painfully and disappointingly slow, but it is under way. The moral pressure continues to mount. The united Nations has played an important role in this process. In particular, the Security Council has addressed the problem many times and has taken some mandatory action against South Africa, such as the arms embargo, but much remains to be done and the Council still has invoked only a few of the measures available to it. The reasons for this inactivity are well known. If r may be permitted a personal reflection on this subject, I served in the Australian High Comission in South Africa from 1954 to 1957. when it was still a member of the Commonwealth. I visited South Africa again in 1983, at the same time as I visited Namibia. In 1956, I came to know people like Oliver Tambo, Professor Z. K. Matthews and Father Trevor Huddleston. While it was more difficult, I also had interesting discussions with black leaders and others in 1983. So I can speak with some personal experience about the way in which, over the last 30 years, the situation in that beautiful but tragic land has deteriorated as the pernicious policy of apartheid has increasingly disfigured and brutalized South Africa. Continuing on a personal note, I felt)after I left South Africa) a sense of some disappointment that I had enjoyed the privileges of life as an Australian jiplomat there without doing more to expose the indignities and the Ultimate 3elf-destructiveness of apartheid. Of course, no one diplomat can change the ~orld, hut everyone of us has an obligation to try to make it a more just and ~tter place. (Mr. Woolcott, Australia) I was reminded of this at the weekendtwhen I saw Sir Richard Attenborough's moving film "Cry Freedom". At one point a black leader says to a white editor of' a newspaper something to the effect that: liThe days of a relatively few whites running a black country are over; it iA going to change - in partnership or in bloodshed." There is an elemental truth in that comment in the film. It was true when I was first there, it is true and it will prove to be true. The tragic fact is that the opportunities for change in partnership are shrinking with each passing month. while the risk of violence and bloodshed inevitably and understandably increases. In the face of this impasse, countries like Australia helieve that the Security Council's inability to act decisively so far should not be used as an excuse for any lack of further action. Australia itself has taken measures against South Africa, either in its own right or in company with like-minded countries. We have done so based on our unaualified condemnation of apartheid and our abhorrence of the principles on which it is based. Apartheid is a philosophy completely foreign to Australia's way of life and to the multicultural society we are building. In choosing measures to be taken against south Africa, we have been guided by a number of considerations. Some of our sanctions were specifically targeted, such as our ban on representative sporting exchanges between Australia and South Africa, the cessation of air links and our withdrawal of consular facilities for visa issue from south Africa. These measures are aimed particularly at white south Africans and are designed to make them instruments of change within South Africa. (Hr. Woolcott, Australia) .,~. .Other measures we have taken have had a wider purpose. In this category, I w9uld highlight a number of sanctions taken by Australia together with our partners in the Commonwealth. These measures include: the prohibition of exports to South Africa of petroleum and petroleum products, computer hardware equipment and any other products known to be of use to the South African security forcesl a ban on new investment in South Africa; the termination of all Government assistance to investment in, and trade with, South AfricaJ a ban on all new bank loans to South Africa; a ban on all Government procurement in South Africa, on the promotion of tourism to South Africa, and on Government contracts with majority-owned South African companies; and, finally, a ban on the import of uranium, coal, iron and steel from South Africa. All these measures are now established in Australian law and policy. Some of them have hurt us. But sanctions need to be taken by all countries, if they are to be truly effective. The outrage felt against apartheid is international. The measures to force its abandonment should have the same international scope. Every year at the General Assembly and in the Security Council we hear condemnation of apartheid in South Africa. But it is still there. Resolutions of the General Assembly have been ignored. The Security Council, too, has been paralysed by a combination of South African defiance and the use of the veto by those permanent members who are not prepared to support mandatory sanctions against South Africa, thereby indirectly nourishing the very system which they condemn. So, what we have done through the United Nations so far must regrettably be regarded as inadequate. Apartheid has continued for the life span of the )rganization and it still continues. But inevitably its days are numbered. lnevitably justice will prevail. We cannot regard these debates as simply 'epetitive rituals. We must maintain the pressure. It is surely time for (Mr. Woolcott, Australia) meaningful sanctions to be applied generally against South Africa to bring the Government of this rich and beautiful but tragic country to its political senses. , Mr. GYI (Burma): Once again this year So~th Africa's policies of apartheid, which continue to deny the majority of the population their rights as a people, is at the forefront of the agenda of the United Nations. From the time this issue first came before the united Nations, the delegation of Burma has unswervingly joined the international community in its opposition to apartheid, and our statement today is therefore in the nature of a recommitment to our consistent stand against and unequivocal condemnation of it in all its forms and manifestations. As the Assembly continues its deliberations on this item, the ominous apartheid regime continues to cast its long shadow over southern Africa and the tragedy continues to unfold as the long-suffering people of South Africa are denied the most fundamental of their rights, and violence and aggression have become the means to perpetuate this abhorrent system. The prevailing state of affairs has been most succinctly described by the Secretary-General in his report on the work of the Organization to this year's General Assembly: "In South Africa, a human tragedy of overwhelming proportions appears imminent unless timely action is taken to prevent it. As has been particularly manifest over the past year, the policy of apartheid leads inevitably to resistance and oppression and poisons the quality of life for all the inhabitants of the country." (A/42/l, p. 6) The principles of justice and equality are norms of international behaviour that are embodied in the Charter which concern not only relations between states but also between peoples. It is indeed a tragedy of our time that in this age of the emancipation of nations and peoples the majority of the peo~le of South Africa are being discriminated against by law and denied the most fundamental of their rights as citizens of their own country. This' institutionalized systemdf racial discrimination today exists in South Afr ica alone; and as a consequence of this' system the oppressed people of that country have suffered much for far too long. An age has passed and the people of South Africa continue to suffer; a whole n'ew generation has been born and because of their race they, too, will also suffer as their forebears did; and so too will the generations yet unborn. Their only hope is the day when apartheid is abolished once and for all. The international community has unconditionally opposed the policy 'of apartheid, institutionalized and practised by South Africa, and has universally condemned it as a violation of the fundamental principles of human rights embodied in the Charter and contrary to the moral and ethical values of human behaviour. Today, as the Assembly continues its debate, the condition of the people of South Africa is no better than it was when this issue first became the concern of the General Assembly some four decades ago. As we look at the course of events during this year, the report of the Special :ommittee against Apartheid describes the situation quite clearly. It states that Lt has been a year of sustained mobilization that reflects the determination of the ,1ac~ majority to dismantle the apartheid system and to build a society that would )e just and non-racial. It also states that the Pretoria authorities have shown no renuine inclination towards a political solution in the country, and instead have ntroduced more measures of a repressive nature. The report also mentions action taken at the international level which has os i tively contr ibuted to the international campaign against apartheid, and the ork of the Special Committee has been significant in this regard. (Mr. Gri, Burma) The state of affairs prevailing in South Africa can be attributed to the refusal of the regime to show real intentions of abolishing this intolerable system. The changes that are being made are of such a nature that they only reflect its determination to maintain and consolidate such a system. That the situation in South Africa continues to deteriorate alarmingly can surely be attributed to the apartheid regime's flagrant disregard of the Charter of the United Nations and its resolutions, in defiance of the will of the international community and the aspirations of the overwhelming majority of the people. The struggle against apartheid is the right of the people ot South Africa, and they have made it increasingly clear that they will not tolerate the denial of their rights. In this, they continue to need the steadfast support of the international community and we as members of the United Nations have a moral duty and an obliga tion to render our support, and such an obliga tion al:'ises from our commitment to the pr inciples of the Chartel:' and above all as fellow human beings. Dialogue and negotiations with the representatives of the black majority are the means to br ing about peaceful change in SOuth Afr ica, and yet we find today a si tuation where the regime has not shown the slightest incl ina tion to take necessal:'y steps for such a course of action. There is inCleed an ovel:'whelming international opinion that further measures in the form of a concerted and effective action is necessary by the intel:'national community to exercise peaceful pressure on the South African regime so that it will see the light of reason and begin a genuine pl:'ocess of dialogue with the major ity population in South Africa. It is also the overwhelming opinion of the Members of the Uni ted Nations that the Security Council should adopt comprehensive and manClatory sanctions in accordance wi th Chapter VII of the Charter. It has been emphasized that the reason for such a course of action arises from South Africa's violation of the principles of the Charter through its acts that constitute a threat to international peace and security. Moreover, its violation of the principles of human rights enshrined in the Chartel:' and aggression against neighbouring States and the illegal occupation of Namibia are compelling reasons for the Security Council to fulfil its responsibilities and it is necessary for all its members to assume their role to make this possible. The process of change and the dismantling of the abhorrent system of apartheid is inevitable for history is on the side of the oppressed majority of South P.frica. However, such an outcome does not depend only on events within the country itself, for the international community, through the United Nations, has a significant role to play to speed up the process of change through dialogue and negotiations. Mr. McDOWELL (New Zealand): The preoccupation of the United Nations with the policies of apartheid is proportionate - and properly 50 - to the depth of concern that is felt by Member states. Today, as when South Africa's racist policies were first condemned by the wor ld community as a vicious evil, their total eradication is one of the major challenges facing the community of nations. New Zealand, for its part, reiterates its national commitment to work with other nations for the abolition of apartheid, and for the abolition of the violence and brutality inseparable from that system. A reaffirmation by the General Assembly of a shared international responsibility is the more important as the crisis situation engendered in the region by apartheid has continued to deteriorate. Inside the country the Government of South Africa has, if anything, become more repressive. It is even less representative than it was in the sense that the minority is divided within itself. Its police have latterly taken to detaining black children looking for something better than an education designed to fit them for a life of subjection. This is a government that equates justice with white supremacy, a government that equates moral right with the armed force at its disposal. The region of southern Africa desperately needs peace and security as a pre-condition to fostering development on all fronts. But there can be no peace s( long as South Africa continues its occupation of Namibia, wilfully, stubbornly and illegally refusing to comply with the decisions and resolutions of the International Court of Justice and of the Security Council. South African forces regularly maraud into Angola. This has now been acknowledged officially. They mount cross-border raids into the other front-line States. This is part of a deliberate and calculated policy of destabilization. New Zealand specifically condemns the attacks against Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe earlier this year. That an assassination campaign aimed at the African National Congress forms part of this programme of pressure now seems to be the case. The traged~ is that those countries unfortunately bordering South Africa, not least Mozambique, cannot develop in peace, but are forced to devote scarce reso~rces to the individual and common effort to defend their security. It is a barely endurable sacrifice they are making in a cause that concerns all countries and all peoples. That sacrifice was specifically recognized at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, held in Vancouver last month. Heads of Government reviewed developments in South Africa since the 1985 Nassau Accord and the 1986 London Review meeting. The latter had considered the report of the Eminent Persons Group, which had visited South Africa. That attempt to initiate a dialogue between the South African Government and genuine representatives of the black community came to nought, as had earlier mediation efforts by the United Nations. None the less, COmmonwealth Heads of Government warmly commended the work of the Eminent Persons Group in offering a real opportunity for the South African Government to begin a negotiating process and to break the cycle of violence in the reg10n. The Commonwealth again called upon South Africa to accept the negotiating concept established by the Eminent Persons Group, which is as valid today as it was when first formulated. Only thus can catastrophe be averted. New Zealand believes that the depth of international feeling on the situation in South Afrca should invoke consideration of further practical reinforcement, On a collective basis, to optimize the effects of the measures already taken. Economic and other sanctions have already had a significant impact. Their more concerted and intensified application is an essential part of the response to apartheid. For our part, New Zealand has implemented all the measures against South Afr ica recormnended by the Commonweal th, as well as all measured adopted by the security Council whether mandatory or voluntary. We are an active participant in the important Oil Embargo Conuni ttee. We see the wor k of such bodies as a means 0 br ioging an in terna tional spotlight to bear on those memer countries still evadil th e embargo on a oomnodi ty which is vital to South Africa's ability to defy the world community. We fully endorse the point made yesterday by the Chairman of th, Committee on Apartheid on the need for effective monitoring. For its part, New Zealand stands ready to apply whatever further measures may be agreed by the Unit! Nations, or by the Commonwealth Committee of Foreign Ministers, established to provide impetus and guidance in fur ther ance of the Okanagan statement on southern Africa and on the Progral1llle of Action agreed by the Commonwealth. In the absence of fur ther action by more coun tr ies, in the absence of a firm c response by the Secur ity COuncil, there seems little prospect that the South African Government will depart from its determination not to reject aeartheid, bu s imply to tink er wi th it. The pace of reform is to be dictated by the overriding need to restore and maintain order and to safeguard white society, whatever the costs externally. The outcome of the white elections showed that, by and large, the bulk of that electorate have closed ranks behind this approach. None the less, there may be some faint chinks of light showing through. The events of the Dakar initiative, when talks were held between elements of the white community and the African National Congress, offer the possibility of reaching out to those elements in South Africa that are open to reason and humanity. The pressure must be maintained. This may be one way of doing it. New Zealand will be guided in this by the views of such organizations as the African National Congress. In the meantime it must be fervently hoped that the Pretoria regime will come, before it is too late, to see the wisdom of releasing and dealing with such genuine black leaders as Nelson Mandela. The meeting rose at 1.20 p.m. (Mr. McDowell, New Zealand)