A/43/PV.89 General Assembly

If there is no proposal under rule 66 of the rules of procedure, I shall consider that the General Assembly decides not to discuss the report of the Fifth Committee. It was so decided. vote. The positions of delegations regarding the various recommendations of the Fifth Committee have been made clear in the Committee and are reflected in the relevant official records. May I remind members that in paragraph 7 of i~~ decision 34/401 the General Assembly decided that, when the same draft resolution is considered in a M:lin Committee and in plenary meeting, a delegation should as far as possible explain its vote only once, that is eit.her in the Committee or in plenary meeting, unless that delegation's vote in plenary meeting is different from its vote in the Committee. The Assembly will now take a decision on the draft resolution recommended in ~ paragraph 6 of the report of the Fifth Committee (A/43/998). The Fifth Committee decided without a vote to recommend to the General Asser.bly the adoption of that draft resolution. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to adopt the draft resolution? The draft lesolution was adopted (resolution 43/232). The HUSIDENT: I shall now call on delegations wishing to explain their position on the re30lution just adopted. Hr. mwORYTA (Poland) ~ The General Asserrbly has just adopted the draft resolution contained in document A/43/998, on the united Nations Transition Assistance Group in Namibia (UNTAG). I should like to state that my delegation joined the consensus on the draft resolution despite its reservations concerning 'Icing for such operations, the compos i tion of existing groups in the scheme of f based on the cri teria set out in resolu tion 3101 (XXVIII). While supporting the overall level of appropriations for UNTAG, we should like to voice Poland's reservations with regard to our allocation to group B in the scheme for financing this operation. On previous occasions we have set forth arguments supporting 8s request to be included in group C rather than group Bg where we continue POland to be placed. we supported the draft resolution, motivated by our endorsement of Un! ted Nations operations, in many of which we are a troop-contributing country, on the understanding that the question of Poland's alloCRticn in the scheme of financing of such operations, which forms part of the draft resolution which has just been adopted, will be resolved at the forty-fourth session of the General Assembly, thus eliminating the anomalies existing within the scheme. Mr. MUDENGE (Zimbabwe): The General Assembly has just adopted the draft resolution for the financing of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia. For the members of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries this is a historic occasion. The South west Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) is a full member of our movement - a ~ounding member, through the attendance at the 1961 Belgrade Sunmit of its President, Comrade Sam Nujoma. We look forward to welcoming Namibia to our ranks within the next few months. To have brought the process towards the birth of a new Namibia so far must be grounds for satisfaction for all the Members of the United Nations. Through all the protracted negotiations since December 1988 the non-aligned countries have worked hard to ensure that there ".!ill be free and fa ir elections wi thou t intimidation in Namibia. To achieve these goals it has been necessary to ensure that the Secretary-General received adequa te resources to carry 00 t his full mandate, as outlined in its original and definitive form in Security Council resolution 435 (1978), as stated in Security Council resolution 632 (1989). That was necessary not because Security Oouncil 435 (1978) had assumed the quality of a Holy Grail, as some have suggested, but mainly because the objective reality in Namibia today dictates it. Pretoria's oontrol of Namibia today is more pervasive than it was in 1978. All these matters must be monitored and controlled by UNTAG. Tb have reduced UNTAG's presence in such circumstances would have weakened the ability of the United Nations to monitor the activities of the Pretoria functionaries in Namdbia. We know that Pretoria has an interest in the installation of a weak and malleable regime in Windhoek. For that reason, Pretoria has the motive, and is prepared, to manipulate the independence process in order to achieve its aim. TO have denied the Secretary-General the wherewithal to restrain Pretoria from doing that would have amounted to connivance wi th Pretoria. we are therefore satisfied by paragraph 5 of the SecretarY-Generalis explanatory statement, in which he stated: "The manda te of the miU tary component of UNTAG, as approved in securi ty Counci t resolution 435 (1978), remains unchanged.· (9/20457, para. 5) A number ,.:' actions Pretoria has taken since the adoption of security Council resolutions 628 (1989) and 629 (1989), as well as the pUblication of the Secretary-General's report, confirm our fears that the apartheid regime cannot be trusted. First, we have the racist elections for white Namibians scheduled for this month. Why this provoca tive action in the pronotion of apartheid? secondly, we saw Pretoria's perfidy in action over the question of the numbers of policemen in Namibia. During the negotiations over Security Council resolution 629 (1989), which sought to effect a balance between tAli ted Nations police observers and SOU th African police in Namibia, either through a reduction of the latter or an increase of the former, Pretoria told the Secretary-General and the world that it was cutting the size of its police force in Namibia by 2,000 men. No sooner had the Security Council adopted resolu tion 629 (1989) than Pretoria reversed the posi tion by announcing that it was increasing its police force in Namibia by 3,000 men, by making its Koevoet murder squads wear police uniforms. Under Security Council resolution 435 (1978) Koevoet should have been disbanded, not integrated. Will the secretary-Generales Special Representative condone such flagrant violations of the provisions of securit¥ Council resolutions 435 (1978) and 629 (l989) by allowing Koevoet to masquerade in the garb of the so-called police force? Those are not the only signs of bad faith by Pretoria in the past few weeks. Since the adoptiOf\ of Security Council resolution 6~9 (1989) Pretoria has decided to increase the size of the South west Africa Territory FOrce by announcing and carrying out a new programme of recruitment. According to Secur! ty Council resolution 435 (1978) that FOrce is to be disbanded and monitored. Why did Pretoria decide to increase thp. size of that illegal Force only two months before the Force was to be disbanded? We should be derelict in our duty if we failed to alert the international community to those serious developments. Only a few days ago Pretoria agents assassinated Comrade Mweshihange, the brother of SWAPO's Secretary of Defence and a colleague of his. Pretoria shamelessly tried to pin the blame on SWJ\ PO for tha t dastardly act. If one of the victims had not been a brother of SWAPO's Secretary of Defence, massive efforts would have been made to make the accusation against SWAPO stick. That is a trend we shall see increasingly in the coming months. It is important that we should be aware of it now and that this Organization should make its position clear - that assassinations will not be tolerated. We know that Pretoria has intensified its campaign of intimidation of the Namibians by threatening dire reprisals against those who are sympathetic to SWAPO. aut perhaps more ominous is the officially sanctioned anarchy in the Caprivi Strip, where the UNlTA bandits are now fully entrenched. It is important that law and order be restored to that part of Namibia without delay. That is an issue that the Special Representative will have to address as soon as he gets to Namibia. If the resources he Is initially taking with him prove inadequate to deal effectively wi th the challenges I have mentioned, we expect him urgently to contact the Secretary-General for addi tional manpower. The memers of the Security Council have already assured the secretary-General of their willingness to co-.operate and respond promptly in such ciLcunetanoes. We assure the Special Representative that the members of the A&sembly will be found to be equally ready to respond promptly. The non-aligned countries are particularly pleased that the resolution that we have just adopted and the understandings that go with it have cOI'lI1\itted the Organization to respect its resolutions and decisions on sanctions against South Africa. 'to achieve that while proceeding wi th Namibia's independence plan has been a major objective of the non-aligned countries. All the Members of the United Nations have grounds for satisfactio! in this regard. The statement by the representative of the Secretary-General in the Fifth Committee that UNTAG will not purchase arms and military equipment from SOU th Africa must surely enhance the Organization's moral standing in the international commmity. we on our part promise and undertake to co-opera te vigorously wi th the special Representative to see to it that the undertaking is honoured in the spirit and the letter. Finally, the non-aligned countries are satisfied to note that, although the Secretary-General will in the first instance fund both the return and, more important, the rehabilitation of Namibian refugees through an appeal to member countries, in the event of a shortfall the programme will be funded from the regular UNTAG bUdget, as provided for in Security Council resolution 435 (1978) lIlin its original and defini tive form-, be quote Security COuncil resolution 632 (1989). ~r that reason, operative paragraph 8 of the resolu tion we have just aoopted is of parUcular importance to us. (Mr. Mudenqe, Zimbabwe) The PRe:; mmT: We have heard the last speaker in explanation of pos ition. on behalf of the members of the Assembly, on behalf of the President of the General Assembly and on ~ own behalf, I should like to express our very spacial apprecia tion to His acceUency Mr. Michael Okeyo, Cha irman of the Fi fth Committee, and to His EXcellency Mt. COnrad Mselle, Chairman of the Advisory COmmittee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, for the very dedicated and conscientious manner in which they have conducted their work and enabled the General Assembly to deal with this urgent matter. I should also like to thank Mr. ruis Maria Gomez, - Assistant Secretary-General for Programme, Planning, Budget and Finance and Comptroller for his very effective contribu tien to facili tating our work. I am sure that I speak for the President and the entire General Assembly in wishing the Secte tary-General and his Special Representa tive for Namibia, Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, every success in this historic task of bringing Namibia to independence through the holding oF. free and fair elections under the auspices of the United Nations. The Assembly has thus ooncluded its consideration of agenda item 154. The meeting rose at 11.05 a.m •