S/PV.2038 Security Council

The events of the last few days in South Africa have brought US to a decisive stage in our deliberations on that tragic country. They demonstrate clearly that the racist minority regime is bent on crushing every sign of opposition to the violent and inhuman practices of apartheid, that it cannot tolerate free speech---any kind of speech-,-open criticism or any sort of freedom for the oppressed majority, Those events mean that the Security Council must renounce the irrelevant and self-serving arguments about the prospects for peaceful and constructive change in South Africa. The Council must now take urgent action to ensure the isolation of the minority rbgime in the international community. The United Nations must now actively help to end the system of apartheid. 11. The so-called Minister of Justice-or the Minister of so-called justice-.-in the racist minority rCgime of South Africa has just carried out a putsch designed to eliminate the vestiges of freedom there. Eighteen organizations have been banned. They include the Black Parents’ Association, the Black Pcoplc’s Convention, the South African Students’ Movement, the South African Students’ Organization, the Soweto Students’ Representative Council, the Union of Black Journalists, Black Community Programmes, the National Youth Organization and the Christian Institute. Two leading black newspapers, The World and W~ekd WU&, have been closed down. Their editors have been arrested. In addition, dozens of prominent black South Africans have bee11 arrested or detained and a number of proI~~i~~c~~t white South Africans have been banned. They include Donald Woods, Editor of the Daily Dispatch Of East London, and Dr. Beyers Naude, the Director of the Christian Institute. 12. By banning those organizations and causing dozens of people to be arrested and banned, the South African Government says it will put an end to a “campaign of hatred against whites” which is being organized by a “minority” that wishes to lead the country into “anarchy”. The language of the South African racists is as revealing as their actions. No reasonable person can fail to see that, in that language, we are confronted with dangerous and paranoid ranting on the part of a regime consumed by racism and fear, a rCgime which, in its delusions, will use its power to do violence everywhere. 14. The Security Council must therefore urgently reassess its position on the question of South Africa. My delegation believes that we must take action now against the racist rkgime of South Africa and that we must adopt the draft resolutions on South Africa submitted to the Council on 29 March. That is the least we can do. 15. As we all know, certain members of the Council have in the past insisted on caution in this matter. They have argued that the actions demanded by the African Group were hasty. They have said, and they continue to say, that the Western Powers can persuade South Africa to change, to be more reasonable, to loosen the bonds of apartheid. The best way to ensure change, we have been told, is through “peaceful means”, and some have even said that “fundamental transformation can be achieved to the advantage of both blacks and whites”. 16. In the spring of this year, members were persuaded to suspend the debate on South Africa. They were told that representatives of the Western Powers would go to South Africa and make it clear to Mr, Vorster that time was running out. They would demand change and threaten United Nations sanctions in the event of change not materializing. Members were told that the new Administration in Washington was committed to majority rule in South Africa and that it would use its power and influence to force change. They were told that they would soon see evidence that the new United States and Western policy was workable. The Council was asked to delay the discussion on this question for two months. We have now waited six months, and we have been shown that the pleas for delay in the spring were nafve, self-serving and dangerous. The racist regime has now given unquestionable proof of its Fascist character. 17. Even the Western mass media, which are scarcely known for their critical acumen or their sympathy for the third world, have shown that they understand what is happening in South Africa. The Washington Post correspondent in Johannesburg said the other day of Mr. Vorster: “His remarks made clearer than ever before that this country has decided to ignore pressure from the outside world, including the United States, and intends to crush black and white dissent, whatever the cost to its image abroad,” On 21 October, The Christian Science Monitor quoted an unnamed American official to the same effect. According to that paper’s correspondent, the official said about the Vorster rdgime: “There is absolutely no sign that they are preparing to make any big change in the right direction.” James Hoagland, a respected writer for The Washington Post, wrote on 20 October that the white minority was trying “to roll back a decade of increased black political awareness”. He pointed out that most of the organizations banned and persons arrested in the last week were noted for their moderation and their commitment to change through peaceful means. He concluded that South Africa’s majority “now have no significant political alternatives left except acceptance of the Government’s internationally condemned separate-development policies or the resort to violence”. 18. It must now be plain for even the most insensitive to see that the racist regime in South Africa does not want change or even reform. It is not interested in change by “peaceful means”-or by any means. It wants to preserve what it obscenely calls the “South African way of life”: apartheid. 19. It would appear that certain members, even now, refuse to recognize the truth about South Africa. It would also appear that they are reluctant to have the United Nations take vigorous action against the minority racist rigime. The United States in particular, we are told, is anxious about the consequences of such action, for the international community, it is said, needs South Africa’s co-operation in order to achieve “settlements” in Namibia and Zimbabwe. 20. We must look at this argument carefully, far it is being used in an attempt to defer Security Council action yet again. The first question which needs to be asked is whether the Western Powers hesitate to act because they do not see the truth or whether they do not see the truth because they hesitate to act. 21. My delegation believes it is important to speak plainty. In our judgement, the Western Powers have failed to take action against South Africa, and have sought to prevent the United Nations from taking action because they fear the kind of upheaval which would result from the dismantling of apartheid. 22. Former Secretary of State Kissinger made this point clear in his press conference on southern Africa and Lebanon of I1 September last year. He said that the United States wanted to see a “peaceful” transition to majority rule in southern Africa. “Armed struggle”, he stated, was a process which led to “radicalization”. These are the words of Mr. Kissinger. Indeed, he spoke of the “probability of the radicalization of the whole continent of Africa”. The United States and its allies, he went on, did not want to see “radical” Governments emerging in southern Africa-and these are the words of Mr. Kissinger. Such Governments, he appeared to believe, would threaten vital Western interests in the region. The United States and its allies would therefore seek to use their influence to ensure that the 23. We believe that Secretary Kissinger’s logic applies today. And it applies to all the major Western Powers. It is this logic, and not concern about what is best for Africa and for the African people, which leads them to ask for delays and for caution. Governments may say that they abhor apartheid, even that they want to see “fundamental transformations” in South Africa. But these are words and, while these words are being spoken, people are dying in South Africa. 24. The fact is that Western Governments and the Western establishment openly state that they have vital and increasingly important interests at stake in southern Africa, These include access to the mineral resources of the region, access to markets, the exploitation of cheap labour and the control of strategic trade routes. Western spokesmen make no apologies when they speak of the need to defend their interests in southern Africa. 25. It is well known that these interests weigh heavily in Western policy planning on southern Africa. Any competent journalist, international civil servant or scholar can provide full documentation to attest to the fact. Yet such considerations are not mentioned in our discussions here. Would it not be better to have the real issues out in the open? If our discussions continue to revolve around reasons which are not reasons we shall be wasting our time and failing in our obligation to the international community. 26. My delegation believes that the Security Council must discuss these matters. My remarks may well be dismissed as an arbitrary and unreasonable attack on men of good intentions, No one should be deceived by these predictable evasions. Let the Council investigate the facts of the matter. Let it review the evidence, as we have, and decide whether what WC say is true. We are confident that, if this is done, we shall be able to discuss the real issues and to make some headway. 27. There is no longer a shred of evidence to support the contention that the major Western Powers can persuade the racist South African r6gime to reform itself or to change. The fact that some were persuaded to accept this argument has had only one consequence. It has exacerbated the crisis in southern Africa. It has hurt the cause of freedom and independence. Let us look at the evidence. The long delays in these proceedings have helped the racist regime of South Africa to pursue a brutal war in Namibia; they have allowed that entity to provide economic and military assistance to the illegal Smith regime and they have provided a diplomatic screen for domestic repression and violence. 28. The Security Council should proceed immediately to take action against the South African racist rCgime in order to save lives and to spare the majority more suffering. Effective action by the United Nations can make it impossible for that r&gime to continue on its intransigent course. “the total”-1 repeat “total’‘-“isolation of the apartheid regime-with utmost priority for the cessation of all military and nuclear co-operation with that rCgime, as well as bank loans to and investments in South Africa”. In the view of my delegation, the Council can best respond to that call by the immediate adoption of draft resolutions S/12309, S/12310, S/1231 1 and S/12312 submitted by the African members of the Council last March.

Seven months after the Security Council decision to adjourn its debate in the hope of seeing some positive changes in the grave and tense situation prevailing in South Africa, and in southern Africa in general, we find ourselves faced with new atrocities committed by the Pretoria r6gime against the black majority. Repression of the freedom fighters has been intensified. The suppression of fundamental rights and freedoms of the Coloured population has continued, and measures providing for the prohibition of important African organizations and many publications in South Africa have been strengthened. 31. Such events only serve to confirm once again, if there were need of this, that the minority regime of South Africa is determined never to give up, of its own free will, its policy of apartheid and racial oppression and that in desperation, in the face of the struggle being waged for equality in rights and social justice, it is becoming ever more brutal, more ferocious and inhuman. 32. The racial policy of exploitation and its ill effects, the denial of the fundamental rights of the majority of the South African population, the forced movement of millions of Africans and the creation of bantustans have been the subject of considerable concern in this forum. This has been reflected in the adoption of a large number of resolutions. 33. In its efforts to put an end to that policy which generates inequality, suffering and terror in the most humiliating way for human beings, a policy which has been quite rightly considered as being a crime against human dignity and conscience, the United Nations, since 1946, has had recourse to a wide range of measures in its efforts to bring the South African Government to its senses. Thus, repeated appeals have aver the years been addressed to the Pretoria rkgime, calling on it to give up its segregationist policy and to take into account the provisions of the Charter. In 1963, an appeal was addressed to Member States to enforce an embargo on arms supplies to South Africa and to isolate that country diplomatically. 34. In view of the refusal of the racist r&me to abide by the Security Council’s resolutions and in view of the escalation of the repression of the African population, the Council recognized, at its meetings in 1972 in Africa, at Addis Ababa, the legitimacy of the struggle against apartheid and racial discrimination, and reaffirmed the need to respect the arms embargo against South Africa /resolution 311 (1972)j. 36. The policy of racial segregation practised by the Pretoria rCgime and the crimes committed against the freedom fighters, against all the Coloured population of South Africa, are a brutal denial of the fundamental rights of the South African people and at the same time a defiance of international public opinion and a flagrant violation of the principles and norms of the Charter of the United Nations. The effects of such a policy, the explosiveness of the situation in South Africa, and in southern Africa in general, constitute a grave threat to peace in the area, with unforeseeable repercussions for international peace and security. No one any longer denies this truth. 37. In the view of Romania, the elimination of the policy of apartheid and the state of tension in this part of the African continent is an extremely urgent imperative. It commands the attention and solidarity of progressive and democratic forces throughout the world, forces which support the just battle being waged by the South African people to exercise their right to forge their own future and to determine their own fate. The Security Council can delay no longer, we believe, in meeting this imperative and rising to its responsibilities for safeguarding international peace, security and co-operation. 38. In the course of the debate last March, the Romanian delegation drew the attention of the Council to the fact that the mere reiteration of the provisions of previous resolutions was not going to improve the serious situation in the area. The new measures which we adopt should, in our view, also carry a guarantee that they will be enforced, so that the participation of the whole population of South Africa in the building of their own future, in total equality, without distinction as to race, creed or colour, can be assured. This requires that the measures should aim at the abolition of apartheid and the causes of segregationist practices, and not at the reform of the apartheid system which has been institutionalizcd by the Pretoria rkgime. 39. The Charter provides the means of resort when peace and security in the world are threatened. Our African colleagues and other speakers have made a series of suggestions which deserve close examination by the Council. We give our whole-hearted support to the position of the African countries and the proposals submitted to the Council, according to which the Council would, pursuant to the provisions of the Charter, take radical measures against the Pretoria r6gime. We consider that firm and concerted action on the part of all the members of this United Nations body could play an important role in eliminating 40. Romania believes that the final elimination of this profoundly anachronistic and reprehensible policy pursued by the minority regime in Pretoria requires an intensification of the efforts of the whole international community and all those who love peace, freedom, independence and equality throughout the world. 41. Faithful to its position of solidarity with African peoples, and with the struggle of the peoples of the world to exercise their sacred right to a free and independent life, Romania supports the aspirations of the South African people to human dignity and national progress. That position was reaffirmed by President Nicolae Ceauaescu in his message addressed on 23 August iast to the World Conference for Action against Apartheid at Lagos, expressing the determination of Romania: “to act in the future too in fighting against the policy of apartheid and racial discrimination in all its forms of manifestation, to support multilaterally the people of South Africa in their efforts to achieve national independence, and to ensure their free and independent development on the way to economic and social progress”.l 42. Finally, the Romanian delegation endorses any mcasure agreed upon by the Council that would be conducive to making substantial progress towards the eradication of the policy of apartheid and racial discrimination.

The next speaker is the rcpresentative of Algeria. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

It is highly symbolic that the Security Council should resume consideration of the question of South ,Africa under the presidency of a representative of India. India was the first country to include the problem of apartheid in the agenda of the Organization and the first, too, to denounce its misdeeds. It is therefore a pleasure, Sir, to address to you, on behalf of my delegation, the warmest congratulations on your accession to the presidency of the Council for this month, and to express our conviction that, under your authoritative guidance, the Council will be able to adopt the decisions dictated by the gravity of the situation in South Africa. I should also like to extend my thanks to all members of the Council for permitting my delegation to contribute to this debate. 45. Despite all the progress achieved, is mankind always to be divided into Romans and barbarians, into the chosen people and the goyim, the former enjoying all the privileges and the latter having only the right to be subjugated? In this prodigious human adventure, made up of many glories 1 United Nations publication, Sales No. E.77.XIV.3, p. 42. 46. More than any other continent, the African continent has the sad privilege of enduring Gehenna. On that African soil which, in Hegel’s beautiful phrase, long remained “a child shielded from the searchlight of history” and today, little by little, is receiving the favours of that history withheld for far too long, human rights have been flouted more than anywhere else. A seemingly age-old curse seems to strike Africa mercilessly: after two centuries of slave trading with the Americas, a century of devastating colonialism and a Conference of Berlin that carved up the continent, Africa today still endures racial segregation, the rkgime of apartheid and violation of the right of peoples to self-determination. 47. In our world, which is both civilizcd and barbaric, man, the final beneficiary of the rule of liberating international law, which is the elemental basis of any national community, is still being scourged, somewhere there in South, Africa, and at the same time here in our consciences, and feels in his own body the modern version of tortures whose severity might have fascinated Torquemada. 48. The inhuman regime of apartheid or “separate development”, as the odious euphemism has it, is flourishing more than ever and is taking root now as a permanent and intolerable challenge to the United Nations and to the universal conscience. Racial arrogance has assumed the magnitude of collective madness in South Africa and in the rest of southern Africa, leaving the blacks to the mercy of white power. Day after day, Vorster is injecting his poison of racism into the blood of Africa. The international community has tried unsuccessfully to arrest this foul leprosy, this racist cancer, that is spreading through southern Africa. What is left to say but a bitter accusation of those responsible, the expression of an anger that burns and purifies, and an oath that binds? 49. The resolutions of the United Nations, the specialized agencies, the regional organizations, the declarations of statesmen calling for the liberation of southern Africa, are innumerable. But behind the kernels of words lies the straw of8 facts; behind the magic of words, the devastated landscape of a universe where man is still tortured and suffering. 50. This series of meetings of the Security Council has been convened at the request of the African Group as a result of the latest measures of repression carried out by the racist regime of Pretoria. This new wave of oppression of unequalled scope was felt as a shock and a challenge by even the traditional protectors of the racist r&gime of Pretoria. 52. In fact, the events of the last few days reveal the true intentions of the leaders of Pretoria and their determination to maintain the rCgime of apartheid. Further, they have just offered formal proof of the error of the belief that there is the slightest readiness on the part of Pretoria to make some change in its policy of apartheid. Those events obey the logic of a system that cannot survive without repression. They serve to swell the already long list of the massacres at Sharpeville, the murders at Soweto and the assassination of nationalist leaders. It is in the nature of things, therefore, that they should have moved the international community to indignation and aroused general condemnation even among the countries most indulgent towards the rbgime of apartheid. 53. It is not, I think, useless to recall that the present meetings of the Council are nothing more than a renewal of the debate that began last March and that should have culminated in the adoption of measures against the regime of Pretoria. But certain members of the Council, perhaps trusting too much in their capacity for persuasion regarding South Africa, convinced the Council of the need to grant a breathing spell to that country so that it might have a chance to see the light of reason. The reply of South Africa could not have been clearer: escalation of repression and constant defiance of the international community. In a word, South Africa has made good use of the respite granted and has strengthened its system of servitude. It continues, therefore, to play its role as an outlaw with the insensate hope of wearing out the vigilance of the international community and sapping the resistance of the people of black South Africa. 54. The profound meaning of what is at present taking place in South Africa can no longer be a secret to anyone. It is apartheid, and apartheid alone, that lies at the root of the tragedy that continues to afflict the black population of Africa. It is not sufficient to condemn apartheid to ensure its disappearance. The black population of South Africa can no longer be satisfied, as in the past, with kind words or even the general indignation that the latest and tragic developments in the situation have aroused. Its diabolical Litho in United Nations, New York Price: $U.S. 1.00 (or equivalent in other currencies) 77-70001-October 1978-WOO 55. The attitude of certain Governments which give direct or indirect assistance to South Africa is obviously encouraging to the Pretoria regime in its constant defiance of the international community. That is why those Governments must of necessity bear part of the responsibility for the latest measures taken by Vorster’s rigime. We can no longer accept the ambiguous behaviour of those that, on the one hand, condemn apartheid policies and, on the other, enjoy close and fruitful relations with Pretoria. 56. It is to the honour of the African countries that they have ceaselessly denounced the dangers of the racist policy of Pretoria. Once again, they have turned to the Security Council and asked it to assume its responsibilities. What Africa requires today of the Council is not only that it should express itself in solidarity with the black population of South Africa but that it should adopt all measures called for by the situation, and particularly that it should prohibit any relations of a political, economic or military nature with the Pretoria rCgime. For this it would suffice that the Council should approve the four draft resolutions put before it last March by its three African members. In acting thus, it will live up to its responsibilities vis-&vis a people whose dignity has been shattered and will avert new Sharpevilles and new Sowetos. 57. Until the Powers concerned have imposed a strict and binding embargo on the supply of weapons to South Africa, until they have ceased to grant any more investments or credits to the racist rbgime, until the Council has adopted the provisions contained in Chapter VII of the Charter and called for by the situation in order to put an end to the flagrant and persistent violations of the principles of the United Nations, there will be no peace in South Africa, nor in the whole southern region, nor in the African continent which has suffered so much for so long. The meeting rose at 4.40 p.m.