S/PV.1583 Security Council

The Security Council has just inscribed on its agenda the item entitled “The situation in Namibia” and has done so in response to the request submitted by 35 African Member States in their letter to me dated 17 September 1971 (S/20326]. I am informed that the representative of Swaziland has become a cosignatory of this letter. 2. The letter signed by the representatives of African Member States contains a request that the Council be convened today in order to enable His Excellency Moktar Ould Daddah, current Chairman of the Organizatjon of African Unity, to participate personally in the debate in the Security Council. It is a pleasure for me, on behalf of the Security Council, to invite the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, His Excellency Moktar Otid Daddah, to take a seat at the Council table and to address the Council on the subject before it in his capacity as the Chairman of the eighth session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity. Mr. Moktar Uuld Daddah, President of the Islamic Republic of Maun’tania and Chairman of the eighth session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Govcnwnent of thte Organization of Afi-ican Urrip, was escorted to the Security Council table. /

I call on President Moktar Ould Daddah. 4. President OULD DADDAH (interpret&o!? from French]: Taking the floor at this meeting of the Security Council held at the request of the Organization of African Unity-of which I have the honour to be the Acting President-on behalf of the Heads of State and Government of members of the Organization of African Unity, I should like to express my sincere thanks to this august body for the speed with which it acceded to our request. 5. As the Security Council knows, our request concerned examination of the grave situation obtaining in Namibia because of the contumacious refusal by the authorities of South Africa to implement the imperative resolutions of the General Assembly and the decisions of the Security Council to speed up the process of decolonisation in that part of our continent. 6. I have, been charged by the eighth session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity to head a delegation composed of the Foreign Ministers of Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan and Chad to discuss with the Security Council the most appropriate means of implementing all the decisions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, particularly in the light of the legal obligation incumbent upon -L-“---.‘-.-- . _.. .“,.“.I”” -.______I j __-__ ,,Ul”^..r. e”‘Y.----LCC~-~-‘- 7, I should llkc to say at the outset that the Organization of African Unity welcomed with satisfaction the concluslons of the Jntcmational Court of Justice declaring the continued prescnCe of South Africa in Namibia to be illegal, and according to which South Africa must immediately put an end to itg administration and, consequently, to the occupation of the Territory of Namibia, 11. Previously, in its resolution 2324 (XXII), the General Assembly had condemned the South African Government for the arrest, deportation and illegal trial in Pretoria of 37 Namibians in flagrant violation of their rights, of the international status of the Territory and of resolutions of the United Nations. However, the South African Govemment, ignoring that resolution, tried the prisoners under the terms of the so-called Terrorism Act of 1967 and the Suppression of Communism Act of 1960. 8, I should like to recall here that Namibia is one of the Territories lo which the Declaration on the Granting Of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples adopted by the United Nations in 1960 applies, That was why in 1966 the General Assembly, seriously concerned at the evolution of the situation in Namibia, adopted resolution 2145 (XXI) ending South Africa’s Mandate over the Tcrritory because, according to paragraph 3: 12, Jn 1968 the Security Council met several times to study the consequences of the illegal trial of 37 Namibians. It was in the course of those meetings that resolutions 245 (1968) and 246 (1968) were adopted condemning the refusal of the Government of South Africa to comply with the provisions of the above-mentioned General Assembly resolutions. The Council further invited that Government immediately to stop the illegal trials, to release the prisoners and to ensure their repatriation. The Council also requested Members of the United Nations to co-operate with it in accordance with the obligations incumbent upon them under the Charter, to ensure compliance by the Government of South Africa with the provisions of the various pertinent resolutions. “South Africa has failed to fulfil its obligations in respect of the administration of the Mandated Territory and to ensure the moral and material well-being and security of the indigenous inhabitants of South West Africa and has, in fact, disavowed the Mandate”. 9. The United Nations had then to fulfil the obligations incumbent upon it by adopting the measures necessary for the transfer of power to the indigenous population in Namibia. To that end, on 19 May 1967 the General Assembly adopted resolution 2248 (S-V], creating a United Nations Council for Namibia composed of II members. In the same resolution, the General Assembly requested the Council for Namibia to proceed to South West Africa with a view to taking over the administration of the Territory and ensuring the withdrawal of South African police and military forces and to legislate until a legislative assembly was established following elections conducted on the basis of universal suffrage and to undertake consultations with the people of the Territory in order to draw up a constitution and to transfer all powers to the people of Namibia upon the declaration of independence. The General Assembly further decided that Namibia should become independent on a date to be fixed in accordance with the wishes of the people. The Council for Namibia was also invited to do all in its power to ensure that Namibia acceded to independence by June 1968 and therefore to undertake measures that would permit that Council to fulfil its responsibilities. 13. Unfortunately, despite the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council the South African authorities continued their illegal trials and condemned 33 of the prisoners to various terms of imprisonment, 14. Having studied the report of the Council for Namibia, and particularly South Africa’s decision to impose apartheid and so-called bantustans on the Namibian people, the General Assembly declared that the continued occupation of Namibia by South Africa despite United Nations decisions was a serious threat to international peace and security. The Assembly also condemned the actions of certain Member States which by maintaining their political, military and economic co-operation with South Africa encouraged it to defy the authority of the United Nations and to hinder Namibia’s accession to independence. 10. On 16 December 1967, in its resolution 2325 (XXII), the General Assembly condemned the refusal of South Africa to comply with the terms of those resolutions and declared that the continued presence of South African authorities in South West Africa was a flagrant violation of its territorial integrity and international status. The Assembly once again urged the South African Government to withdraw from the Territory unconditionally and immediately, and invited all Member States, particularly the main 15. Following the promulgation by the South African Government of the South West Africa Affairs Act of 1969, which assured the de facto transfer of administrative, legislative and financial powers to the Government of Pretoria, thus reducing the status of the Territory to that of a simple South African province, the Security Council, on 12 August 1969, adopted its resolution 269 (1969), in which it decided that “the continued occupation of the Territory of Namibia by the South African authorities constitutes an aggressive encroachment on the authority of the United Nations”. The Council therefore set the deadline of 4 October 1969 for the withdrawal of South Africa from the international Territory of Namibia. ~~nsaquorces for States of the Continrred Presence of South Africa in Nan~ ibia (Soufk West Africa) trotwitltstandb~g Security Council resolution 276 (1970), Advisory Opbrion, I.C.J. Reports 1971, p, 16. Document symbol: q p- \re Best copy available 21. The international community should be onlIed upon to strictly apply whatever political, economic and m*tay sanctions may be dictated by the circnmstarloos given the rll will of the racists of Pretoria, 22. I could not make this contribution to Your debate without stressing how greatly the general responsibility for justice and peace in the world rests especial@ on the great Powers, particularly the permanent members of the Security Council: For we know that if South Africa continues to defy the decisions of the international community with impunity, that if Portugal 1s carrying on a series of colonial wars that call for means well beyond its own potontinl, and that if Israel, finally, continues to mock the United Nations and world opinion, we know that this is possible OnIY because they are all supported by the great Powers- After all, it is obvious that if the great Powers were to agree on a solution, they do possess the effective means of ensuring its full implementation. But if they are willing to agree to help us only in so far as such help does not in the end disturb what they consider to be their interests, then we shd know full well that the great and noble principles everyone is happy to affirm will long remain but vain ideals. 17. Thus far, I have endeavoured to draw the Security Council’s attention to the fact that since 1960 the South African Government has constantly violated all the pertinent resolutions of both the General Assembly and the Security Council. Now that the ,.Interna#o.nal. Court of- Justice has handed ?lZw~an‘Ad,vis&y Opinion, as requested in,- resolution 284 (1970);.‘categorically stating that the continued presence of South Africa in Namibia is illegal and that it must immediately withdraw its administration and end its occupation of that Territory, the Organization of African Unity is asking the Security Council to apply the pertinent provisions of Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter against the Government of South Africa for its persistent refusal to turn the administration of Namibia over to the United Nations. In other words, the Security Council should insist upon and secure the immediate and .unconditiona,l withdrawal of South Africa’s illegal adminis- ‘tration from the international Territory of Namibia. When $he Security Council has unhesitatingly and without delay resolved to take this necessary step against the Government of South Africa, then the United Nations, in consultation with the Namibian people and the Organization of African Unity, should undertake to create the conditions necessary for the declaration of Namibia’s independence as a sovereign State in which the Namibians and they alone will be basters of their destiny. 23. Of course, it might be said in repIy that everything does not depend solely on the will of the great Powers, far from it. No question, and we are the first to concede the point. We are the first to admit that no viable and lasting settlement can be imposed from without. But we also know that the great Powers are in a far better position than anyone else to pursue the search for constructive solutions to the many difficult problems of the world. More, we feel they would have a far nobler role to play in the concert of nations if they would place their full weight on the side of justice and peace in the world. 24. And, to revert to the crucial problem which concerns us today and that we have just brought before the Security Council, we believe that the great Powers have a particular responsibility in the settlement of the question of Namibia. Not only because, when all is said and done, this falls squarely within the purview of the United Nations, but also because no one except those who cling to injustice and oppression, can urge differences in Africa as justifying any reservations whatsoever as to the objective pursued or the means appropriate to securing the restoration to the Namibian people of their inalienable rights to self-determination, independence and national sovereignty. Be that as it may, for all the reasons that I have adduced, the African peoples and their Governments, whose eyes today are turned to this meeting of the Security Council, make a pressing and anguished appeal to each member of this Council individually and to the Council as a whole, as the supreme organ of the United Nations, that it employ all necessary means of compelling the South African Government to bow to the unanimous will of the international community and immediately withdraw its administration from Namibia. 18. The Organization of African Unity is asking the tecurity Council to go beyond mere declarations of [nnciplc, that have little influence on the facts of the irtuation: it wants practical action on the spot to put an [nd to the occupation of this internationa1 Territory by a “oreign Power. . @+ We are fully aware of the difficulties in implementing terms of Chapter VII of the Charter, but South Africa’s today to the international community may the very basis of our Charter and be a real threat to peace and security. There should therefore be about studying the ways and means available end to the illegal occupation of Namibia by b racist regime of Pretoria. D. With the assistance of the Secretary-General, l;Thant-and I wish once again to assure him of Africa’s I&lute confidence in his courage, his far-sighted genernd his exemplary devotion to the cause of the United of justice and peace in the world, as evidenced by tanding service he has rendered the international ity over the past ten years-the Security Council j 25. For the Africans and their friends all over the world ust as for all peaceand justice-loving men who respect t& 27. It is the duty of the Security Council to assume its responsibilities without the least procrastination. But it is above aI the permanent members of the Security Councilthe United States of America, the Soviet Union, France and the United Kingdom-on which Africa today calls to put an immediate end to the martyrdom of the Namibian people and, beyond Namibia, to find a peaceful, just and lasting solution to the explosive situation threatening not only the stability, dignity and progress of southern Africa, but international peace and security as well. 30. In any event, Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, it is my most fervent wish, which I address to you with trust and hope on behalf of the Heads of State and Government, members of the Organization of African Unity, that the historic debate now beginning may be crowned with total success in the single and indivisible interest of Africa and the international community, of which the United Nations, in our eyes, constitutes at one and the same time the supreme conscience and guarantee. 28. We hope that this special responsibility will remain uppermost in the mind of each member of the Council throughout these decisive deliberations, the conclusions of which, whatever they be, will mark a turning point in the life of the United Nations.

I thank President Moktar Ould Daddah for his statement. The meeting rose at 12.45 p.m.