S/PV.2036 Security Council

Letters have been addressed to the President of the Security Council by the representatives of Nigeria and Tunisia in which they request to be invited to participate in the discussion of the queslion on the agenda. In accordance with the usual practice, 1 propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those representatives to participate in the discussion without the right to vote, in conformity with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure. 2. In view of the limited number of places available at the Council table, 1 invite the representatives of Nigeria and Tunisia to take the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber, on the usual understanding that they will be invited to take a place at the Council table when they wish to address the Council. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Hurn’man (Nigeria) and Mr, Mestiri (Tunisia) took the places reservccl for them at the side of the Council chamber.

I wish also to inform the members of the Council that I have received a letter dated 24 October from the representatives of Benin, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and Mauritius which reads as follows: “We, the undersigned members of the Security Council, have the honour to request that, during its current: meetings devoted to the consideration of ‘The question of South Africa’, the Council should extend an invitation under rule 39 of its provisional rules of procedure to Mr. M. J. Makatini of the African National Congress and to Mr. David Sibeko of the Pan Africanist Congress.“1 4. If I hear no objection, I shall take it that the Council agrees to the request and, at the appropriate moment in the Council’s proceedings, 1 shall invite Mr. Makatini and Mr. Sibeko to make their statements. It was so decided.

The Security Council is meeting today in response to the request made on behalf of the Group of African States in a letter dated 20 October from the representative of Tunisia, acting in his capacity as Chairman of the African Group for the month of October [S/22420/ a 6. Members of the Council also have before them four draft resolutions, sponsored by Benin, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and Mauritius, contained in documents S/12309, S/12310, S/12311 and S/12312 of 29 March 1977. In addition, 1 wish to draw the attention of the Council to document S/ 12422, which contains the text of a letter dated 21 October from the representative of Sri Lanka to tllc Secretary-General. 7. The first speaker is the representative of Tunisia, who wishes to make a statement in his capacity as Chairman of the African Group for the month of October. 1 invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. President, first of all 1 should like to thank you and the other members of the Council for calling on me today to set forth the views of the African Group, of which I have the honour to be the Chairman, on the situation in South Africa, As Tunisians and as Africans, we are particularly pleased that this meeting is taking place under the presidency of the representative of India, the first country to denounce the horrors of apartheid. 1 Subsequently circulated us documnt S/12423. 10. It is certainly not necessary here for me to go into the origins of this problem, which has been with us as long as the United Nations itself and which was inscribed on the agenda of the General Assembly at the behest of your delegation, Mr. President. The Security Council dealt with this matter for the first time in 1960, when the Sharpeville massacre prompted the Tunisian delegation--then a member of the Council-to submit the matter to this body, I do not intend at this point to go back that far, but I would remind the Council of what has happened with regard to the cluestion since the last session of the General Assembly, when ~1 number of resolutions were adopted on apartheid and on its harmful effects in South Africa. On 9 November 1976, the General Assembly adopted resolution 31/6 D, in which it requested the Security Council to take urgent action, under Chapter VII of the Charter, with a view to impIcmenting military sanctions against South Africa. Furthermore, in resolution 3 l/6 K, the Assembly urged the Council to consider steps to achieve the cessation of further foreign invcstmcnts in South Africa. 11. Ilnfortunately, the General Assembly’s appeal has remained unheeded. The vigorous measures advocated by the international community have not been adopted. Still worse, South Africa has taken advantage of the situation to step up its repression, continue its apartheid policy, try to create more bantustans and pursue with impunity its attacks on neighbouring countries. Meanwhile, the Security Council met in March 1977 to consider the question of South Africa in the light of the wave of repression unleashed by the Pretoria rdgime. However, no decision was adopted in that conne’xion. The debate was adjourned to allow for broader consultations. Seven months have since clapsed without any concrete a&on being taken in regard to South Africa. I?,. Once again we are faced with massive measures of repression, even more brutal than before, which cannot be justified. Directed particularly against those whites and blacks who advocate dialogue and peaceful resistance, these measures, as the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Tunisia stared, “are obviously aimed at the immediate prevention of any possibility of a peaceful settlement and at the creation of an irreversible situation as a result of which the entire area might well be plunged into violence and confrontation”. 13. In the circumstances, it is difficult to continue to pretend to believe that there is any willingness on the part of the Pretoria Government to bring about a sincere change in its racist attitude. In fact, the events of the past few days have exposed the true future intentions of the leaders of South Africa: they arc a reaffirmation of the policies of ~tr,rrr~t/~c+tl; to those of us who were hoping against hope, they arc a reminder that it is vain to continue to entertain illusions, particularly since these are not isolated events. They are most definitely part of a very clear pattern that 14. In our view, unless the Security Council wishes to fail in its mission, it must abandon its wait-and-see policy. Thus far, since 29 Maich, it has had before it four draft resolutions introduced by the three African States members of the Council. It is to those four texts that we should now direct our attention. Some have said that they are designed to intimidate and others have described them as a panacea. In reality, they are neither, but they must be reread in the light of the events that have taken place since the Council’s last debate on the subject and placed in their proper perspective. When we read, for example, paragraph 3 of document S/12309, which demands that the racist rCgime of South Africa “Cease forthwith its indiscriminate violence against peaceful demonstrators against apartheid, murders in detention and torture of political prisoners”, and when we think of Steve Rilco’s death a few months later, we are somewhat troubled by our consciences-at Ieast it is to be hoped we are. I cannot say that if we had adopted that draft Biko would still be alive, but at least the question is an open one. And the same applies to the other drafts, none of which is particularly drastic regarding Pretoria. The actions advocated are the very least that could be done to awaken the public opinion of the whites of South Africa and to create an awareness among them of how serious the situation is as a result of the behaviour of their leaders. That Africa has asked that no military assistance should be given to the murderers of Soweto could hardly be called an extremist measure. 15. I do not know whether the hesitation and delaying tactics of the Council have encouraged the Government of Pretoria to act as it has done. But it is important that on the eve of the elections of the white minority that minority should know that the United Nations is determined to act, that the patience of the Security Council has reached its limits and that all the members of the Council are now 16. We are convinced that the moment of truth has arrived. If the United Nations does not meet Pretoria’s most recent challenge, no decisive progress can be made anywhere in southern Africa. We are not suggesting that the challenge of racist violence should be met by the legitimate violence of the enforcement action provided for in the Charter; we are suggesting that there should be minimal solidarity in action limited to the economic arca and to military and nuclear co-operation. 17. The Security Council, after the General Assembly, has devoted several debates to the situation in South Africa. The Government of Pretoria has many times been condemned for its policies of apartheid and for its repressive action. We do not believe that a long debate is necessary in view of recent events. Condemnation of those measures would, of course, be welcome, although paragraph 1 of draft resolution S/ 12309 already covers that. 18. What the African Group wishes to express to the Council, through me, is that it hopes that the Council will give unanimous approval to the draft resolutions which are before it and will thereby help the people of South Africa in its harsh trial under apartheid, from which we are convinced it will inevitably emerge victorious.

The next speaker is Mr. David Sibeko, to whom the Council extended an invitation earlier this afternoon. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement. 20. Mr. SIBEKO: Mr. President, your country has been a living inspiration to all of ~1s who find ourselves living under the yoke of colonial domination or white settler occupation. India, in the post-war period, became the first to lower the standard of British colonialism and raise itself up as a nation free and independent among the nations of the world. As the representative of Tunisia has already pointed out, it was your country which first raised the question of South Africa’s apartheid laws, the laws of racial discrimination, at the United Nations. The subject has continuously and consistently occupied this body ever since. 21. I crave the Council’s indulgence and, on this occasion, would begin my statement by referring to what was said to me, in a private conversation, by a representative of an important Power after our first appearance in the Council. That representative remarked to me that, after hearing our statement and then later listening patiently to the fulminations of Vorster’s representative, he was left in no doubt, personally, as to who was better qualified to govern South Africa. 22. There is not a single statesman or objective journalist who has ever encountered Mangaliso Sob&we, the President of the Pan Africanist Congress, and come away without the impression that Sobukwe possesses the political wisdom. the moral authority and the sense of justice required to heal the deep wounds inflicted on the African 23. Instead, what is imposed on the majority people in our country is a regime headed by tyrants who, because they are afraid of facing up to the consequences of the failure of their policies, as was stated last week by their own newspaper Die ZY~nsvaler, are deliberately charting a course that is leading South Africa to a racial inferno. The holocaust towards which Vorster and his ruling clique are dragging South Africa will inevitably extend its burning results far and beyond that country’s own borders. Without question South Africa’s apartheid rCgime is posing a very grave danger to world peace. 24. The most crucial task assigned the Security Council is to preserve world peace. And when this peace is as blatantly threatened, as is the case in South Africa today, it is a matter of duty-a sacred duty-for the members of the Council to move swiftly to deal with that danger. 25. According to Vorster’s own police boss, Jimmy Kruger, last week the South African apartheid r&me found itself compelled to take drastic measures against at least 16 mass organizations of the Azanian people and two white-led anti-apartheid groups because they were fomenting revolution in South Africa. The apartheid r@gime also found it necessary to proscribe two newspapers published for blacks: The World, a daily, and its sister paper, Weekend World. The measures against those opponents of the apartheid regime were accompanied by wholesale arrests and the detention of the leaders of those mass organizations, as well as the editor of The World, Percy Qoboza. Racist to the end, the Vorster rigime is treating its white opponents with kid gloves, relatively speaking, because so far it has only placed the brave Donald Woods, editor of the East London DuiJy Dispatch and Dr. Beyers Naudc, Director of the Christian Institute, under house arrest and banning orders. 26. What is happening in Azania is that the oppressed black masses are approaching the limit of their endurance and are demonstrably determined to rid themselves of the oppression that tramples them underfoot. Against mighty odds, on 16 June last year, the children of Soweto became universally recognized as the symbol of the Azanian people’s resolve to free themselves. Their courageous struggle with bare hands, stones, sticks, bottles and other crude weapons against the machine guns, armoured cars and other sophisticated weapons of Fascist South Africa’s paramilitary police has been emulated across the country for their compatriots. 27. In spite of savage massacres which have wasted over 1,000 black lives, including those of 4-year olds, the masses continue to rise in tidal waves, in cities and in villages, in urban townships and in the hated bantustans. At last the Vorster rbgime has been forced to acknowledge openly that there is a nalional uprising in Azania. Fearing that the uprising is now destined to grow into all-out armed struggle, the apartheid regime has declared a virtual state of emergency as a first step towards severely tightening the Draconian laws which already exist in that country. 29. By the week-end, the number of people detained since last Wednesday had risen to 200. Amongst those held are prominent Azanians like Rachidi Hlaku, the National President of the Black People’s Convention, the Right Reverend Manas Buthelezi, Chairman of the Black Parents’ Association and a Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa, Dr. Nthato Motlana, a prominent physician who is Chairman of the Soweto Committee of lo-this is his second detention since 16 June 1976-and S’mangaliso Mkatshwa, the Convener of the Black Renaissance National Convention in 1975 who is the acting Secretary-General of the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Earlier this year, he had been placed under house arrest and other restrictions for a period of five years. 30. These men and others with them in detention have been branded Communist agitators. Percy Qoboza, a devout Catholic with a degree in theology, who, even when we were schoolboys in the same township, Sophiatown, could never have been confused with a radical, has had his paper closed down and has himself been placed under arrest because the columns of Tlze World, which is owned by South African mining houses, were perceived by Vorster and his cronies to be part of the Communist conspiracy. 31. But, as we all know, Hlaku, Buthelezi, Motlana, Mkatshwa and the other hundreds are in jail merely because they have articulated the universally-known grievances of the black people under apartheid colonialism. This is a democratic exercise, taken for granted in those countries on whose behalf Vorster claims he crusades against communism. Percy Qobqza and Donald Woods are “guilty” of faithfully reporting those grievances and the views of their fellow detainees, another freedom which is basic in those democracies. 32. According to the External Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation this morning, in South Africa it is believed that this Security Council debate is going to be the toughest ever for the apartheid r6gime. World opinion has swung sharply in favour of the oppressed millions in South Africa, and the r8gime realizes this. Kruger told an interviewer that the South African Cabinet had taken this into account before deciding on the massive bans and sweeping arrests. They carried out the severe measures of repression regardless. 33. It is common knowledge that Vorster knows full well that he has those of his traditional trading partners and allies of long-standing that are represented here in a kind of diplomatic bind, so he timed his action with evil precision. They need him to secure satisfactory results for their initiatives over Namibia and Zimbabwe. If those countries 34. There is a simpler explanation of what this racist villain is doing to the five Western countries in the Security Council which have been negotiating with him over Namibia and Zimbabwe: he is blackmailing them. His ransom price is another triple veto to prevent the Council from taking action under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. That is blackmail. 35. It is the Western countries themselves which have taught us never to give in to a blackmailer because he keeps coming back over and over again. It will be interesting to see how they deal with this obscenely cynical one. While we have been impressed by the sharp criticisms pouring out from Bonn, London, Ottawa, Paris and Washington, and further impressed by tiny steps in the right direction like the recalling of ambassadors, it must be borne in mind that Vorster is no mere juvenile delinquent to be treated with miid rebukes. He murders in cold blood and now he shows another criminal bent: he is a blackmailer. He is a dangerous gangster, The justice demanded by the people of Azania from the international community, which has declared apartheid to be a crime against humanity, cannot be further delayed if the spilling of blood in our country and across its borders is to be minimized. It cannot be avoided. 36. It also has to be kept in mind that, with or without international punitive measures, the Azanian people and their liberation movement are determined to intensify the struggle until political power and the land are restored to the people. Against this, Vorster has not only taken the drastic measures we are all too familiar with, but he has licensed his Fascist army to commit aggression against any African State which he considers is posing a danger to apartheid South Africa, and this at a time when he has developed the capacity to build and deploy nuclear weapons. About two weeks ago, he falsely accused Botswana and Mozambique of training Azanian guerrillas, a familiar prelude to the execution of the diabolical plan to commit aggression against independent African States opposed to South Africa’s apartheid policies and white settler colonialism. 37. What Anthony Lewis says in The New York Times of this morning applies not only to his own President and his OWII country; as far as we are concerned, it affects all America’s allies. This is what he says: “ . . . ) Mr. Carter’s attempt to make Western values matter once again in foreign affairs is at risk here. The risk Iies in the very fact that the South African Government claims to be defending those values, . . If the United States seemed to bc acquiescing in the bizarre claim, the Carter policy would deserve to be taken with a grain of cynicism,” 38. We do not take our friends represented in the Council for granted. Their past record here and their pronounce- 39. Finally, I wish to say that Vorster’s reckless action of last week-which is made more ominous by his scheme to The meeting rose at 4.45 pm. HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS IJnited Nations publications may be obtained from bookstores and distributors throughout the world. Consult your bookstore or write to: United Nat.ions, Sales Section. New York or Geneva. COMMENT SE PROCURER LES PUBLICATI.ONS DES NATIONS UNIES Les puhlirations dcs Nations Ilnies sent on vente clans les librairies et les agences d&xsitaires du monde entier. Informer-vous aupr8s de votre libraire ou adressez-vow R : Nations Unies. 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