S/PV.2119 Security Council

It is my very pleasant duty at this the first formal meeting of the Security Council for the month of March to express appreciation, on behalf of the members of the Council, to Ambassador Yaccoub Bishara of Kuwait for his services as President of the Council during the month of February. I pay a tribute to him for the admirable manner in which he presided with great diplomatic skill over the Council’s work last month. Adoption of tbe agenda The agenda was adopted. Question concerning the situation in Southern Rhodesia: Letter dated 28 February 1979 from ffie Permanent Representative of Equatorial Guinea to tbe United Nations addressed to tbe President of the Security CamciI~ (Wl3121)

1, wish to inform members of the Council,that I have received letters from the representatives of Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cuba, Ethiopia and Ghana in which they request to’be invited to participate in the discussion of the question on the agenda. In accordance with the usuai’practice, I 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. At the invitation -of the President, Mr. de Figueiredo (Angola), Mr. Houngavou (Benin), Mr. Modisi (Botswana), Mr. Roa Kouri (Cuba), Mr. Seifu (Ethiopia) and Mr. Seky,i (Ghana) took the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber.

I should like to inform members of the Council that I have received a letter dated 2March from the representatives of Gabon, Nigeria and Zambia [S/ 131311 which reads as follow& “We, the undersigned members of the Security Council, have the honour to request that the Council, pursuant to rule 39 of its provisional rules of procedure, should extend an invitation to Mr. Callistus Ndlovu, reprcsentative of the Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe, to participate in the consideration of the ‘Question concerning the situation in Southern Rhodesia’.” If I hear no objection, I shall take it that the Council agrees to the request. It was so decided.

The Council is meeting today in accordance with the request made by the Group of African States at the United Nations in a letter dated 28 February from the representative of Equatorial Guinea to the President of the Security Council (S//3121]. 5. The first speaker is the representative of Ethiopia. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. President, allow me, at the outset, to congratulate you upon your assumption of the presidency of the Council for this month. It is indeed most fitting that you, a representative of an African country, should be presiding over this very crucial debate. We are all confident that your diplomatic skill and experience in the struggle for freedom, independence and human dignity will ensure that a satisfactory result will emanate from the current deliberations on the question of Southern Rhodesia. 7. Permit me also to express my gratitude to you and the other members of the Council for having acceded promptly to the request submitted to you by the representative of Equatorial Guinea, as Chairman of the African Group at the United Nations during the previous month, that the Council should consider the recent grave developments in Southern Rhodesia. 8. The situation in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia has been, for far too long, a situation of war. The recent developments in that Territory are merely new levels of escalation of the war by the rebel racist minority regime of 9. During the past few weeks, the illegal racist regime in Southern Rhodesia has intensified its desperate acts of aggression against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of Mozambique, the People’s Republic of Angola and the Republic of Zambia, thereby killing helpless Zimbabwean refugees and civilian nationals of the front-line States. Through such provocations, the illegal regime is seeking to plunge the whole region into war, with the hope that such a situation will prolong that tigime’s existence by drawing into the conflict its racist and imperialist mentors. 10. These repeated acts of aggression constitute a-clear challenge not only to the African community of States, which have solemnly pledged to go to the assistance of the front-line States, but also to the international community at large. It is Africa’s sincere hope that at these meetings the Security Council will not fail to come to grips with the disastrous consequences which the continuance of such acts of unprovoked aggression against sovereign African States entails. 11. The Security Council has, on previous occasions, condemned similar acts of aggression committed by the Smith regime against the front-line African States. Though we feel that this is as it should be, it cannot by itself constitute an adequate course of action. The Rhodesian illegal regime is not acting alone in its defiance of the international community. The South African racist regime is openly and fully supporting it. Overt and covert support from the powerful Western economic and military circles is of no less significance. 12. It is therefore imperative that the Council should not lose sight of the linkage between the Rhodesian situation, the aparzheid regime of South Africa and Western strategy regarding southern Africa. One cannot be viewed in isolation from the other. As a result, the African Group is once again requesting the revival and reactivation of the Security Council Committee established in pursuance of resolution 253 (1968) in order to implement the various resolutions of the General Assembly regarding the strengthening and widening of the scope of sanctions against the Rhodesian racist regime. And in this connexion, the recommendations of the Assembly calling for the imposition of mandatory economic sanctions against the apartheid regime should also be considered with a view to implementing them before the situation in Southern Rhodesia explodes to engulf the whole of Africa in armed conflict. 13. Hardened by almost a century of colonial oppression, the gallant sons and daughters of Zimbabwe, the African freedom fighters under the leadership of the Patriotic Front, rose up in arms in defence of their most sacred and inalienable rights only after all efforts in search of a peaceful transition to majority rule had been frustrated. The various proposals, including the Anglo-American proposals, and the series of negotiations at Geneva, Malta, Dar es Salaam and elsewhere have served only to expose the Smith regime and the intentions of its colonialist, imperialist mentors in Britain and the United States. As early as September 1977, 14. There is no doubt that the so-called internal settlement concocted at Salisbury by the rebel Smith and his black puppets, the whole purpose of which is to guarantee the supremacy of the white settlers by enabling them to retain control of the army, the police force and all the other essential levels of power, does not even meet the standards set by the Anglo-American plan. This fact did not escape the international community. Indeed, exactly one year ago in March, the Security Council categorically rejected and condemned that so-called internal settlement. In adopting resolution 423 (1978) the Council reaffied that the socalled settlement could neither make the rebel regime more acceptable nor Britain, the colonial administrator, less responsible. 15. Today the Council is meeting again to discuss what is essentially an extension of the so-called internal settlement. I am here referring to the fraudulent elections scheduled for next month. The Council, which unequivocally rejected and condemned the sinister manmuvres a year ago, cannot be expected to take any other action but to condemn the planned bogus election and declare its results null and void. In doing so, members of the Council will realize that they are merely reaffirming the judgement they themselves have passed and that any action to the contrary would only be an exercise in gross hypocrisy. Similarly, members of the Council should realize that any attempt on the part of any Government, particularly those of Britain and the United States, to send observer missions of any nature to the planned bogus election would only serve as an open invitation for the further escalation of war and bloodshed, since such an act would essentially constitute a contemptuous denial of the irrefutable fact that there can be no settlement of the Southern Rhodesian colonial problem without the participation of the Patriotic Front. 16. Africa is of course fully aware that the moves currently taking place in Washington and London to send observer missions to Rhodesia are primarily intended to lend legitimacy to the process and its results, thus creating a pretext for the lifting of economic sanctions. Legitimacy cannot emanate from an illegal situation. Therefore, the only sensible course of action left is to put an end to the hitherto perennial attempts and scenarios which have been designed to legitimize the racist minority regime of Ian Smith and which have resulted in a steady and sharp deterioration of the situation in Southern Rhodesia, gravely endangering international peace and security. 17. The liberation of Zimbabwe is fast approaching. As a result, the Smith regime is becoming more desperate. The year 1979 is bound to see an intensification of the armed struggle within Rhodesia and attacks on the front-line States! During this crucial year, free Africa will undoubtedly strengthen its solidarity with and increase its support for the Patriotic Front-the sole and legitimate representative of the people of Zimbabwe.

The next speaker is Mr. Callistus Ndlovu, to whom the Council has extended an invitation under rule 39 of its provisional rules of procedure. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 20. Mr. NDLOVU Mr. President, members of the Security Council, we wish, on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe and the Patriotic Front, to thank you for giving us this opportunity to appear before this august body. Allow me to congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of the Council. Your personal involvement in efforts to resolve southern African problems and your Government’s commitment to bringing about majority rule in the region in general and in Zimbabwe in particular are well known. We are happy that this debate on Zimbabwe is taking place under your guidance. 21. ‘The people of Zimbabwe have, in their just struggle to regain their national independence, recently made giant strides in the direction of achieving majority rule in their country. They have inflicted heavy blows on the Smith r&me. The entire population, the struggling masses of Zimbabwe have been mobilized behind the patriotic forces, which have now carried the war right to the doorstep of Salisbury, the heartland of racism and “settlerism” in Zimbabwe. Our war of liberation has driven the racist minority regime from most of the country, with the countryside falling rapidly into the control of the Patriotic Front forces. The urban centres, which until recently were safe havens for the Rhodesian ruling class, have been heavily infiltrated by our forces, and recently the Council has witnessed the evidence of this in the attack on Salisbury itself. 22. Having lost effective control over 90 per cent of the country, the regime of Ian Smith has taken to desperate and serious acts of aggression against the defenceless civilian African population inside the country and the peoples of the neighbouring countries of Angola, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia. In its war against patriotic forces, the Rhodesian regime has never pretended to respect even the elementary rules of international law nor has it shown any concern for human life when dealing with African civilians. The r&me does not accord prisoner-of-war status to cap tured freedom fighters. Freedom fighters captured in battle have been either summarily executed or tried in camera and hanged. The African’civilian population remotely suspected of either colluding with freedom fighters or failing to report their presence have been collectively subjected to the same kangaroo+zourt form of justice, if not wantonly bombed and massacred indiscriminately. 23. To say that the Smith regime has abandoned all elements of aceptable due process in dealing with freedomtighter suspects !s an understatement. The regime’s Indemnification Act places members of its security forces above the law, because under the provisions of that notorious law ho member of the security forces can be prosecuted for crimes which he commits on patrol duty-however callously-against the defenceless civilian population. This 24. The Rhodesian strategy in the war has been to inflict as many casualties on the civilian African population as possible. The present policy of the regimeis to kill at least 30 Africans for every white settler killed. In pursuit of this genocidal policy, which does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, the regime’s forces have made the civilian African population inside the country and refugees in the neighbouring countries their chief targets. In most cases, this has also included unprovoked attacks on the civilian populations of Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia, and now Angola. In these mindless attacks on civilians, the regime’s forces have used incendiary weapons, particularly napalm bombs. These have been used on refugee camps in Mozambique and Zambia. Incendiary weapons have also been used to destroy villages and crops in areas suspected of supporting freedom fighters. The regime’s forces have also poisoned wells, boreholes and other sources of water, thereby creating indiscriminate hazards to human and animal life alike. 25. It is important that this august body should ask how a puny army like that of Ian Smith, drawn from an everdwindling white population, can have such a military capability as to strike even a place as far away as Angola. Having virtually lost the war on the ground, the forces of the regime have increasingly resorted to air raids on villages suspected of harbouring freedom fighters and refugee bases in neighbouring countries. In some of its most savage raids into neighbouring Zambia, Mozambique and Angola, the tigime has used French-made Mirage jets. It has been recently revealed that the South African regime has been loaning its French-built Mirage jets and pilots to Rhodesian forces to conduct raids into neighbouring countries. The raid into Angola a few days ago was staged by the South African air force based in the Caprivi Strip. The revelation of the fact that the raid on Luso in Angola was staged from the well-known South African air-base in the Caprivi Strip unmasks the myth that the Rhodesian air force has the capacity to strike as far as it wants in southern Africa. The involvement of South Africa in these desperate attempts to apply artificial respiration to the dead Rhodesian regime should surprise no one, given the presence of South African forces in the Rhodesian army itself. 26. We call upon the international community to condemn South Africa for intervening in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe. 27. By making South Africa’the key to a negotiated settlement on Zimbabwe, the Western Powers, particularly the United Kingdom and the United States, have extended to the South African regime a false sense of respectability which has encouraged that regime to try to influence events in Zimbabwe openly. Although South Africa had been directly aiding the Smith regime even before the Western initiative on Zimbabwe, we contend that, once the United Kingdom and the United States predicated any negotiated solution of the Rhodesian problem on the co-operation of the South African regime, and linked such a solution to the solution.of the problems of Namibia, they gave the South African regime undue influence over the situation in Zimbabwe. Because both the South African and the Rhodesian 28. Since the two minority regimes began coordinating their responses to the conceptually incoherent Anglo- American approach to the problems of southern Africa, they have exchanged crucial military information. It is for that reason that South Africa’s air raid on Kassinga in Angola was later replicated in the Rhodesian raids into Zambia in October 1978. The same applies to South Africa’s assistance to the Smith regime on the raid into Angola this week. 29. The Western countries whose function has been to sustain both minority regimes, in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa, must accept responsibility for the wreckless acts of aggression of the Smith regime. Although some of these countries have publicly expressed support for United Nations economic sanctions against the regime at Salisbury, they have done nothing to stop their citizens from trading with that regime. The evidence of French, British, American, West German and Israeli manufactured arms and the participation of such nationals as mercenaries in the Rhode- Sian army show the extent to which Western countries are involved in sustaining the racist r+gime at Salisbury. We call upon the Committee on Sanctions* to consider measures for tightening up and widening the economic sanctions against the regime in Southern Rhodesia. 30. Those who think that they are helping their kith and kin by violating sanctions against the Smith regime must realize that they are contributing to the regime’s intransigence over the issue of a genuine transfer of power to the majority, and this in the long run will harm the interests of the white minority which they think they are helping. An effective application of economic sanctions against the regime would quickly force the regime to face the reality that it can no longer live on borrowed time. The support that the regimeenjoys from certain Western circles has made Smith think that he can temporize over the future of the country and probably get away with anything short of a genuine transfer of power. 31. His so-called internal settlement of 3 March 1978- which he has since mutilated by renegotiating some of its basic terms-is just an example of how Mr. Smith has been taking advantage of what he thinks is Western tacit approval of his actions. When the United Kingdom and the United States failed to come out openly in opposition to his so-called internal settlement, Mr. Smith was encourged into drawing more adventurous schemes designed to maintain and entrench minority rule in Zimbabwe. By coopting black puppets into his regime, Mr. Smith sought to blunt the criticism of this regime by liberals in both the United Kingdom and the United States. In fact, because of the presence of Abel Muzorewa and Ndabaningi Sithole, who in no sense are sharing power with Smith, many liberals now fear to criticize the Rhodesian regime lest they be ’ Security Council Committee established in pursuance of resolution 253 (1968) concerning the question of Southern Rhodesia. 32. Members of the Council have, I am sure, read about moves in London and Washington to send observers to Smith’s sham elections scheduled for 20 April 1979. In the United States Senate, Republican Senator S.I. Hayakawa from California, and Democratic Senator George McGovern, from South Dakota, on 28 February announced their plan to introduce a Senate resolution calling for a team of observers to monitor the Rhodesian elections to be held on 20 April. Although both Senators claim that “the proposed dispatch of observers must not be construed to be an implicit or explicit support of the internal settlement”, there is no blinking the fact that Senator Hayakawa was one of the 27 United States Senators who invited Ian Smith and his blacksmiths into the United States and vigorously campaigned for their admission. At that time he made no secret about how good he thought the so-called internal settlement was. Senator McGovern may claim that “it should be clarified that Senator Hayakawa and I continue to hold very different views of the present Rhodesian situation*‘, but the fact remains that, by co-sponsoring a Senate resolution to send observers to an election taking place under an arrangement which has been pronounced “ilIega1 and unacceptable” by the United Nations, he is virtually according recognition to the 3 March agreement. It does not matter how he tries to justify or rationalize his actions. The fact remains that at Salisbury his actions will be interpreted to mean that he believes there is a chance that fair and democratic elections can be held under the provisions of the 3 March agreement and in circumstances of war. 33. The issue is not whether fair and democratic elections can be conducted but whether the provisions of the socalled settlement are fair and democratic. One does not expect elections held under an unfair and undemocratic constitution to be fair and democratic. To expect such an outcome would be as absurd as to expect to be able to make fried ice. 34. The provisions of the 3 March agreement reached between Smith and his blacksmiths were pronounced illegal and unacceptable by the Security Council, and as such are null and void. This agreement has been overwhelmingly rejected by the people of Zimbabwe. This is why the war against the regime has intensified since the signing of the so-called agreement. The Council has heard our views on the so-called internal settlement before-when Patriotic Front co-leaders Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe appeared before the Council. We shall therefore not go over the terms of the agreement itself once more. 35. The proposed elections of 20 April 1979 are supposed to take 10 days. This will enable the over-stretched security forces of the Rhodesian regime to move from one polling area to another. It is also an arrangement which enables polling officers and the security forces to determine how to deal with low turn-outs as they move from one polling area to another. This alone makes fair and free elections impossible. Futhermore, there is no list of registered votersThis means that men will use their local authority registration certificates and women will use a more dubious form of identification, that will enable migrant workers, who number over 250,000, to vote as the Angolan refugees voted in the 36. We call upon the Security Council to condemn these elections as being as fraudulent as the Constitution under which they are being conducted. Western conservative apologists for the Smith regime cannot hide their true intention of backing racist Ian Smith behind the cassocks of Bishop Abel Muzorewa and the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, who have sold their souls and stilled their consciences for the sake of self-gratification at the expense of the people of Zimbabwe. They know, and we also know that they have been behind Smith since he unilaterally seized power in 1965. They back him now not because of the inclusion of blacks in his regime but because this enables them to hide their racist faces behind the clerical gowns of Muzorewa and Sithole. 37. In case there are those who have not heard this before, the Patriotic Front wishes to reiterate its objectives in our struggle to regain our national independence. As our leaders, Presidents Mugabe and Nkomo, have said time and time again, our war is not against white people as members of a race but against the system which has been imposed on us over the years by British settlers. We are not fighting to install a black face in place of Smith’s white face. No, we are fighting to eradicate the racist institutions which enslaved 99 per cent of the people of Zimbabwe for nearly a century now. White people in Zimbabwe who subscribe to genuine majority rule have nothing to fear because they will become part of the majority once a genuine transfer of power takes place. If there are going to be racial problems under our rule, they will not be of our making but will be caused by those who stubbornly reject the idea of transferring power to the majority now, those who continue to bomb defenceless civilians and refugees, and those who support minority ruli for parochial and ethnic reasons. 38. In conclusion, we wish to appeal to the Security Council to condemn Rhodesian raids into Angola, Mozambique and Zambia, to warn South Africa against interfering in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe, to call upon all countries not to have anything to do with Smith’s elections, and to examme loopholes through which the Smith regime continues to trade with the outside world. The Smith r&me and its allies at Pretoria should not be allowed to believe that they can violate the territorial integrity of neighbouring countries with impunity. Such a state of affairs would threaten the peace and security not only of Africa but of the whole world. For our part, we believe that we have no choice but to intensify the armed struggle, carrying it to its logical conclusion, which is a genuine transfer of power in Zimbabwe. 39. Zimbabwe must.be free. The struggle continues. Victory is certain.

The next speaker is the representative of Botswana. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make a statement.

On behalf of the front-line countries, I should like to thank you, Mr. President, and the other members of the Council for allowing me to speak during this debate on the problems afflicting southern Africa. 43. It is today over a decade since. the Council met and determined that the situation in Southern Rhodesia was a threat to international peace and security. The Council has since met on several occasions only to reaffii its original finding. At each successive meeting the Council invariably observed that the situation in that unhappy British colony continued to deteriorate. 44. The front-line countries completely share the view that so long as the minority white r&ime in Southern Rhodesia continues to survive there will be no end to the unspeakable suffering of the people in southern Africa, in general, and of the black people in that region, in particular. The situation in Southern Rhodesia today poses a serious threat to international peace and security. 45. The people of Zimbabwe are waging a valiant struggle to shake off the yoke of colonialism. The front-line countries have always deemed it their responsibility to assist them, and they are not about to abandon that responsibility. The struggle will continue until final victory. The cost is now very high and, in the light of the deteriorating situation, will continue to escalate. 46. In their struggle, the people of Zimbabwe have never ceased to seek an-amicable and civilized settlement. Unfortunately for them, conferences have been held, under the auspices of the colonial administration, to define the problem, to devise machinery for ignoring the problem and, finally, actually to deceive the black people of Zimbabwe in perpetuity. The leaders of the suffering black Zimbabweans have attended all those conferences in spite of all the glaring faults they found in the objectives of those conferences and their cynical implications for them. Whenever there appeared to be some measure of accommodation in the proposals discussed at those conferences that the leaders of the black people could genuinely accept, the authors of the proposals found a way to reverse themselves, in a conspiracy to frustrate our leaders further. 47. It was only after its long experience of treachery in the white settler clique and its powerful Western sympathizers, in particular the British Government and the Government of South Africa, that the people of Zimbabwe resolved to enter into an armed struggle against them. Its resolve to enter this phase of the struggle was inevitable, given the circumstances of the time, when the other side engaged in cruel deceit and continued to enforce a callous and inhumane policy against the people of Zimbabwe. The degree of repression in the country, the maltreatment of black people, the abuse of the law and of human rights and, indeed, the scant disregard for the lives of the black people of Zimbabwe are well documented. 48. Now that it is clear to the illegal white minority r&me at Salisbury that all its deception, intrigue, cruelty and 49. Encouraged, on the one hand, by a visit to the United States made possible through an invitation by some dangerously ill-informed senators extended in defiance of the decisions of the Security Council and, on the other, by some ill-conceived and impolitic rumblings of support from the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, Mr. Smith now hopes to have the Governments of those two countriesand, in the case of the United States, once again-defy the decisions of the Council by unilaterally lifting sanctions imposed against Southern Rhodesia in 1968. 50. One of the reasons the Council is meeting today is to appeal to the Governments of the United States and of the United Kingdom not to be so easily duped by Mr. Smith and to refuse to submit to the pressures of misguided elements within their Governments to recognize the illegal regime. The front-line countries earnestly hope that this appeal will be heeded by both Governments. Mr. Smith in new clothes is still Mr. Smith. The results of the April 1979 elections are predetermined. 51. On the other hand, Mr. Smith has placed his country on an unparalleled war footing. The Territory is ruled by martial law. Repressive measures taken against the black population in Southern Rhodesia are so severe that they are deplored even by the very same socalled internal leaders whom Mr. Smith intends to install as his puppets in a so-called limited majority rule government. More and more of the black people of Southern Rhodesia are now fleeing in fear of their lives. In flight also are young children who have decided to forgo the love of their parents because of the intolerable discomforts and suffering inflicted upon them by the notorious security guards of the Smith regime in besieged villages, and to join the swelling refugee populations of Zimbabweans in neighbouring countries. 52. Mr. Smith’s appetite for cruelty is apparently insatiable. He has developed a distinctly inhumane policy of tracking these innocent refugees into the neighbouring countries, where his security forces execute them. These vile acts of murder of the refugee populations in neighbouring countries are part of the policy of genocide against the black people of Zimbabwe. Genocide is a crime against humanity and a violation of all the principles and customs of civilized nations and States Members of the Organization. The frontline countries wish to record their condemnation of this act , of genocide by the Smith regime. 53. In accordance with the grand scheme of things conceived by the illegal minority regime, the neighbouring 54. Another reason the Council is meeting today is that the military forces of the illegal white minority regime in Southern Rhodesia have made successive unprovoked and premeditated attacks well within the territories of Angola, Mozambique and Zambia, from 17 February to 1 March of this year. Most of these attacks were directed against refugee camps. Over 200 innocent people were killed and over 650 injured, and among the dead and injured are civilian Angolans, Zambians and Mozambicans. 55. The other front-line countries are outraged by these dastardly attacks against the sister countries of Angola, Mozambique and Zambia, and wish to record their strongest condemnation of the acts of naked aggression perpetrated against them by the illegal white minority racist tigime in Southern Rhodesia. The Security Council should not give comfort to the illegal r&me concerning these terrible inhuman acts. It should roundly condemn them for what they are: barbarous acts of murder. 56. The people of all the front-line countries share in the sorrow caused by the illegal regime to the people of Angola, Mozambique and Zambia and the black people of Zimbabwe. We stand with them in mourning the dead to whose relatives we wish to express our heartfelt condolences. These are very sad and tragic times in the history of southern Africa which will be remembered by all the struggling and valiant people of that region. 57. In the fast deteriorating situation in southern Africa there is bound to be more of that sort of sorrow visited upon the innocent and peace-loving people by the illegal warmongering regime at Salisbury. We have no doubt that our people have the capacity to withstand it and are prepared to pay the supreme price, if that is what it will take to rid themselves of colonialism and racism. We also know that the days of Mr. Smith and his co-conspirators are numbered. 58. The people of Zimbabwe under the guidance of their liberation movement, the Patriotic Front, must be congratulated on the valiant tight they are waging against indomitable odds in their determined struggle against British colonialism and the white settler minority in Southern Rhodesia. They have already proved their mettle to us, for which they enjoy our admiration and respect. The front-line countries pledge their unswerving support to them. We shall stand with them until they succeed in ridding themselves of the bloodthirsty Smith. 59. The front-line countries request the Security Council to take appropriate measures in support of the people of Zimbabwe and their liberation movement, the Patriotic Front. Such measures should be sufficient in scope to strengthen the hand of liberation and decolonization. That 66. Mr. de FIGUEIREDO (Angola): Mr. President, on behalf of the Government of the People’s Republic of Angola and my delegation, please accept our very best wishes on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for this month. The warm and fraternal relations that exist between our two countries are reflected in the ties of co-operation and friendship between our delegations in New York and elsewhere. The people of Angola have always received the support of the people and leaders of Nigeria, both in our struggle and on the political and diplomatic fronts. I should like to take this opportunity to pay a tribute to the memory of our comrade, Brigadier Murtala Mohammed, who fell victim to an imperialist-hatched conspiracy. We in Angola revere his memory as that of one of our most stalwart friends and one who stood by us and fought for us especially in the early days of our young People’s Republic. His Excellency President Obasanjo has continued Nigerian support for the People’s Republic of Angola, for which we thank him and the people of Nigeria. 60. The Smith regime has no right to terror&e its people. It has no right to defend the position of undeserved privilege of the white settler community in Southern Rhodesia. Neither does the Smith tigime have a right to invade neighbouring countries or to remain in a country whose people it so manifestly hates and abuses. Western countries have no right to arm Mr. Smith and his colleagues, only for him to kill innocent civilians in Southern Rhodesia and to embark upon unprovoked acts of aggression against neighbouring countries. The Government of the United Kingdom has no right to continue its shameless irresponsibility and deception. 61. The Security Council must ensure that sanctions against Southern Rhodesia will be strengthened and that Member States will strictly observe them. In this connexion the role of the colonial Government must be re-examined closely, particularly now that the Council is aware of the disclosures of the Bingham report.2 From the Bingham report one thing is now very clear: the British Government has been writing accusing letters to the Council about others while it was consciously committing similar crimes. 67. So often have we protested and appealed to the Security Council that the international community must surely have got the message that imperialism and racism are alive and well in southern Africa; in fact, not only alive and well, but increasing in activity and strength. 62. The latest round of attacks which the Smith regime is mounting against refugee camps in the front-line countries is aimed at depleting the black population of Zimbabwe. The aim in killing these innocent refugees is to have fewer people to oppose Mr. Smith in his sham elections. 68. The racist and Fascist minority regimes at Pretoria and Salisbury appear to be racing to outdo each other in perpetrating acts of aggression against the independent black States of southern Africa. Were it not for the death and destruction left behind, the corpses of women, children and old men, the charred school buildings and health clinics and the ruined refugee camps, one might be tempted to write off these nightmares as a peculiar, colonial, sadistic form of bush game played by bored white settlers. Unfortunately for them, we shall not stand by while our earth turns red with the blood of the victims-or do black men not bleed? 63. No State should send observers to elections the preparations for which included the wholesale murder of people. We should like to repeat at this juncture that the outcome of the elections on 20 April 1979 is predetermined. Such elections can be neither democratic nor fair. The number of people who will participate in such elections is immaterial, as it makes very little difference to the outcome. Perhaps Senators McGovern and Hayakawa and Lord Pym should be asked to explain how the April 1979 elections can be democratic and fair when, from the outset, they exclude the participation of the Patriotic Front. 69. The Fascist, racist, illegal, minority Smith regime chose to defy the world in 1965 and, despite sanctimonious utterances from Whitehall, despite Security Council sanctions against the British colony, despite the mobilization of world opinion, and despite the co-ordination of action, the racist regimes at Pretoria and Salisbury continue to flourish. 64. In conclusion, the front-line countries request the Security Council to adopt a resolution that, first, condemns the unprovoked acts of aggression by Mr. Smith against their territories, secondly, declares the so-called elections of 20 April 1979 a sham and therefore null and void, thirdly, calls upon all States not to send observers to the elections and not to recognize whatever emerges from such elections-in this connexion the front-line countries urge the Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom to ensure that no observers will be sent to Southern Rhodesia by any arm of their Governmentsfourthly, calls upon all States to provide assistance to the liberation movement of Zimbabwe, the Patriotic Front, and finally, invites the Council to adopt measures to 70. And now the illegal regime at Salisbury, its lifelines to the West pulsing with economic interests and multinational power, feels so secure that it has moved to widen its area of battle to embrace independent, sovereign countries in southern Africa, including those far from its borders. 71. The illegal Smith regime has been carrying out’murderous assaults on Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana. Now the Smith clique has intensified its attacks in preparation for the great farce it is about to stage next month. As part of its strategy, it has carried out regular bombing raids in the past two weeks. On 26 February, supposed Rhode- Sian bombers raided Angolan territory 180 miles inside our borders and left over 160 dead and more than 500 injured. 2 T. H. Bingham and S. M. Gray, Report on the Suppiy of Petroleum and Petroleum Products to Rhodesia, London, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1978. 73. The Fascist Foreign Minister of the illegal regime at Salisbury, Van der Byl, has stated the following in connexion with those armed attacks upon our countries: “The countries that lend themselves to these activities must accept the fact that they will suffer, in the same way as innocent civilians were killed in their tens of thousands by Anglo-American bombing raids on Germany in the last war.” 74. Van der Byl’s arrogance in using that analogy is typical of the colonial and imperialist mentality that led white Europeans in droves to the continents of the third world, aided by their Governments and their armies, urged on by an exploitative system hungry for land, goods, raw materials and markets. In most cases these greedy colonialists encountered either hospitality-which they abused-or resistance with sticks, stones and spears. We Africans have always opened our arms to people who will live with us and become one of us. We shall always reject settler colonialism which merely plunders our land, uses our labour and oppresses our people on our own territory. 75. The People’s Republic of Angola was created out of the blood and corpses of scores of revolutionary martyrs. These heroes were the ancestors of our ongoing revolution, which is by no means over. Each succeeding generation of Angolans stands ready to defend our hard-won independence, our territorial integrity and our sovereignty. 76. The Central Committee of the MPLA-Workers’ Party and all the revolutionary militants in the People’s Republic of Angola, under the able leadership and guidance of our comrade, President Agostinho Neto, pledge to resist all forms of imperialism, racism and colonialism, and attempts to resurrect them within our sacred borders or to perpetuate them outside, whether in southern Africa or elsewhere. It would be a betrayal of our revolutionary principles if we did not continue to offer our solidarity and support to all the genuine liberation forces struggling to bring majority rule and independence to Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa itself. 77. To address myself to a specific situation, on behalf of Angola, I renew here our pledge of support for the Patriotic Front, the liberation movement that has been waging an unceasing struggle to liberate Zimbabwe. Every Angolan life lost in the defence of revolutionary principles or in an attack on racism, imperialism and colonialism is a loss we will bear with dignity and with pride, satisfied in the knowledge that it was for a worthy cause. 78. We are a revolutionary nation; therefore I say to our comrades in the Patriotic Front and all our revolutionary 79. Our condemnation of the illegal Fascist junta that rules at Salisbury-we choose to ignore the misguided “Uncle Toms” in Smith’s Cabinet-is not limited only to protests against the bombing raids on the People’s Republic of Angola or against the attacks on the People’s Republic of Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana. Our condemnation extends to the entire Fascist system in Rhodesia, from the handful of racist whites who reign at Salisbury to the system of mass exploitation of the land and majority inhabitants of Zimbabwe; from the discriminatory laws that enslave our comrades to the farcical attempts by the Smith regime to whitewash its illegality by the alleged repeal of certain laws and their replacement by others virtually the same in effect, if not in content. These include the Emergency Powers Act of 1979, which permits detention without trial, cohective arrests, lines and forced resettlement-all applied to blacks only. 80. Further, our condemnation extends to Smith’s most valuable ally in southern Africa which is equally guilty of the crimes of racism, apartheid, minority rule, exploitation, colonialist links and imperialist ties. This close collaboration between the Fascist junta at Pretoria and the racist gang in Salisbury is no secret. I shall not attempt to enumerate the overt and covert ways in which each-nourishes the other and helps it to survive. There is ample proof and documentation for those who still need or desire it. And, therefore, every life lost in the noble struggle against oppression and imperialism and every bullet tired in an anticolonialist cause are a part of the struggle against the systems imposed by the PretoriaSalisbury axis to deny to the peoples of Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa their inalienable right to freedom and independence. 81. Finally, our condemnation of these attacks against independent southern African States, our condemnation of the systems prevailing in the white enclaves in southern Africa and racist regimes ruling in those enclaves, and the collaboration between the two--our condemnation of all of this is equally extended to that vast and complex Western international imperialist machine that both feeds those minority racist r&imes and racist systems and feeds on them as well. 82. I shall refrain from going into. the details of the economic support given by Western countries and transnationals to the regimes at Pretoria and Salisbury. Last year saw the disclosure of ample evidence that successive British Governments had known of, and silently acquiesced in, economic and commercial activities between the United Kingdom and its renegade colony.. All this was in flagrant violation of the mandatory sanctions imposed by the Security Council by two States which are permanent members of the Council and by other Western States which sit or recently sat on this body. Without these links the racist r&ime would not be able to survive, and certainly neither would the system of virulent racist discrimination which is one of the main reasons that those two .racist r@imes have been isolated from the rest of Africa. 84. To add insult to injury, Smith was allowed to visit the United States. And then the West wonders why its credibiiity is so low in our part of the world; why we are equally ready for armed struggle, much as we ourselves would prefer a peaceful solution. Because we have yet to come across a “negotiated” settlement that was not a sell-out, a “peaceful” settlement ,that granted genuine independence and put into power a government that reflected the aspirations of the masses and was supported by them. 85. The illegal Smith regime has placed over 75 per cent of Zimbabwe under martial law in an effort to stem the tide of revolutionary fervour that is sweeping the masses. Smith will ultimately fail in Zimbabwe, for victory will ultimately be ours. Smith has been judged by the people of Zimbabwe and found guilty. But where he may yet-temporarily be saved, ironically enough, is in the halls of the United States Congress, where the Smith r&me and its American friends have been lobbying heavily among conservative forces to grant a reprieve to Smith. The latest move is to send an observer group to monitor the so-called elections which will be held, not in Zimbabwe but in Rhodesia, next month. 86. The international community is well aware of the mandatory sanctions against Rhodesia, which include a travel ban. Will Africa and this world body stand by and allow this violation of a Security Council decision, one that has the blessing of the very permanent member of the Council whose own legislature is now contemplating this act? Will the American people and Government allow thii damage to their recent efforts to win friends in the third world7 Will the international community allow the Fascist Smith to use this ruse as a means of conferring a semblance of legitimacy on the “elections” and on his “government”? 87. The People’s Republic of Angola strongly condemns the socalled elections planned for next month. We appeal to all States not to violate the mandatory sanctions against Salisbury, especially not the travel ban. We appeal to them not to send delegations of any sort, whether official, quasioficial or private, which would be used by the racist gang as a means to confer on themselves national and international legitimacy. 88. The People’s Republic of Angola has enjoyed a hardwon independence for just over three years. Since 1975, under the leadership’of our President, Mr. Agostinho Neto, and the Central Committee of our vanguard party, the MPLA-Workers’ Party, we have geared our resources and our energies to the massive task of national reconstruction, to the rebuilding of our war-shattered institutions and the elimination of reactionary, elitist ones. We are applying our 89. However, time and again we are distracted from our task of nation-building to face the ugly threat from nascent imperialist activity, armed invasions by Rhodesian bombing raids being just the most recent example of such activity, but certainly not the only one, or even one of a few. Our nation stands mobilized to defend our country, and we stand ready to support our comrades in Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. 90. Until the final defeat of racism, apartheid, imperialism and colonialism, until the disappearance from our continent of neo-colonialist activity, whether economic, political or military, until the achievement of genuine independence by all the oppressed peoples in southern Africa, until the total dismantling of the racist-imperialist minority structure in Pretoria and Salisbury, the struggle continues.

It is most fitting that this meeting of the Security Council to discuss the vexing problem of Southern Rhodesia is being presided over by the representative of Nigeria. Your country, Mr. President, indeed qualifies as a front-line State in all aspects except contiguity. It is seriously committed to the liberation of southern Africa in word and deed. You have also demonstrated your commitment to the cause of freedom and justice in your capacity as Chairman of the Special Committee against Apartheid. That Committee, under your able chairmanship, has been tackling South Africa, which is at the core of the forces of oppression in the region. 92. The Zambian delegation pledges its fullest cooperation with you during this month that has inherited problems from February. We are certain that you will apply your usual frankness in tackling the world’s problems. I also wish to pay a tribute to your predecessor, Ambassador Bishara of Kuwait, for the tireless and fearless manner in which he guided our work last month. To be sure, the alphabet or nature has favoured non-aligned countries in that the Presidents of the Security Council since January have been representatives of non-aligned countries from Latin America, Asia and Africa. 93. I should like, at the outset, to commend the Council of Ministers of the Organ&ion of African Unity for their initiative in requesting a meeting of the Security Council to consider the acts of aggression committed by rebel Rhodesia against Zambia, Mozambique and Angola and the planned so-called elections in Southern Rhodesia scheduled for next month. 94. The issue of Southern Rhodesia which has been brought to the Council is not routine. It requires serious reflection on the part of us all. The Council must handle it with care, firmness and diligence. To do otherwise would be to betray the trust which many people and States have placed in this body and in the community of nations to give assistance. There are some here, particularly those who favour the status quo, who would argue otherwise. The Security Council has been seized of the problem of Southem Rhodesia for over a decade. What we should all be 95. One may venture to ask how much more damage should occur before definitive measures are adopted by the international community. Some may regard the present war situation as a regional or limited conflict. But surely, it should be logical to conclude that today’s local war could easily escalate into a generalized conflagration. All the indicators show that the situation in southern Africa shows all the signs of escalating fast into a catastrophe. 96. It is for considered reasons that Zambia, together with the other victims of perpetual aggression by the racist white minority regimes, has kept and continues to keep the international community informed about serious developments in the area. We do not do so because we want other people to feel pity for us. That would be totally unnecessary. We have brought the tragedies of southern Africa to the Council’s attention because, if the prevailing situation there does not constitute a serious threat to world peace and security, we wonder what would. 97. The escalation in the conflict has been manifested in the repeated armed attacks by rebel Rhodesians against the front-line States. That conflict has progressed in stages from raids along the borders to intensified full-scale armed invasions in which Rhodesians have increasingly resorted to aerial bombings. At this juncture, I should like to give a few examples of acts of aggression committed against my country, Zambia, by rebel Rhodesia since the last meeting of the Council to consider a complaint by Zambia, in March 1978. 98. The Council will recall that, in March 1978, following Rhodesian attacks, Zambia brought a complaint before the Council [S/I258q. On 6 March forces of the rebel regime had attacked the Kavalamanja area, in Luangwa district, using air and ground raids, killing five soldiers and wounding 20 civilians. That was the second attack on Luangwa by rebel troops, for in September 1977 the same rebels had bombed the area using napalm bombs., That unprovoked and indiscriminate attack on Zambia came only three days after the so-called internal settlement had been concocted at Salisbury. 99. In the early hours of 19 October 1978, the triggerhappy Rhodesian rebels launched yet another premeditated aerial attack on Chikumbi refugee centre for Zimbabwean children and disabled refugees, which is located 20 kilometres north of Lusaka. In the raid, 226 persons were killed and 629 injured. On the same day Rhodesian forces also attacked the Mkushi training settlement for girls, killing 100 of them; 92 were missing and 90 injured. Another refugee centre at Mbororo, east of Lusaka, was also bombed. In those raids, Zambia lost 36 of its nationals, including four elections otlicers and 31 members of the Zambia National Defence Forces who were engaged in mopping-up operations. 100. In a five-minute air attack that took place just four kilometres west of Lusaka on 2 November 1978, six refugees were killed and a few others injured. 102. Only last Friday, 23 February, the Smith clique again sent forces to Nampundwe refugee centre, west of Lusaka. Rhodesian jets strafed and dropped more than 20 bombs on a farm belonging to a retired Zambian civil servant, Mr. Katundu Amukusana, killing two of his daughters and four other women. In contrast to their previous attacks, when they bombed only refugee centres on the pretext that they were freedom-fighter camps, the rebels have now even resorted to bombing Zambian civilian homes. Altogether, 18 persons-six of them Zambians-were killed and 122 injured. Of the injured, eight were Zambian nationals. The rest .of the injured were refugees, innocent Zimbabwean women and children, who had arrived in Zambia two and a half weeks before from Botswana to seek shelter in our country. 103. In addition to all the aerial attacks I have just outlined, Rhodesian rebels have persisted in other acts of war such as border raids, the planting of land-mines and violations of our air space, not to mention a series of subversive activities in Zambia. Late last year 18 foreign nationals were arrested in Zambia in connexion with spying for rebel Rhodesia. In‘addition, a Mr. Sutherland, a white resident farmer in the Mazabuka area, southern Zambia, was found with large quantities of weapons which were stored on his farm for use by Rhodesian troops. 104. As the Council is aware, Rhodesian rebels have persisted in their attacks against front-line States. Apart from the horizontal spread of the conflict, there is a vertical dimension to the problem. This can be proved from the types of weaponry used. Experts have concluded that the Rhodesian rebels have been using incendiary and chemical weapons, which are excessively injurious against the civilian populations both inside Rhodesia and in the front-line States. What is even more surprising is that Rhodesian forces have. now been using long-range jet bombers in their crusades of death and destruction. The following is the composition of the rebel Rhodesian air force, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, in its The Military Balance 19784979: there are 84 combat aircraft; they consist of squadrons of Canberra B2s and T4s, Hunter FGA9s, Vampire FB9s, Provost T-52s. Cessna 337s, C-47s, a Baron 55 and Islanders, in addition to Alouette II/III helicopters. 105. It is my delegation’s view that the international community has the right to know from whom and how rebel Rhodesians obtain weapons. The Rhodesian racists do not have the capacity to manufacture their own sophisticated weapons or planes. There is ample evidence to suggest that Rhodesians are using South African planes painted in Rhodesian colours. Not even the South Africans, who constitute the backbone of Rhodesia, are-capable of manufacturing sophisticated weapons. It is known, of course, that* contrary to what propagandists in the West may say, South Africa can produce primitive weapons. 106. It is known why the rebel Rhodesians have persisted in their war of aggression against us. We are aware that they want to trigger an international war which would for them 107. The fighters of Zimbabwe are operating from inside occupied Rhodesia. They do not have the fire power to hit targets in the vicinity of Salisbury from Zambia or Mozambique. Smith and his cohorts must stop using Zambia as a scapegoat for the problems of their own creation and imagination. By attacking refugee centres or any part of Zambia, the Salisbury clique is in fact committing premeditated and naked acts of aggression against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of my country. That is a criminal act. .108. In their wanton acts of aggression, the Rhodesians have slaughtered and maimed hundreds of Zimbabweans as well as Zambians in Zambia. For that reason I cannot find a better description of Ian Smith and his “blacksmiths” than a bunch of bloodthirsty maniacs on the loose without regard for human life. They are international criminals who must be punished accordingly for waging war against humanity. 109. Let me now turn to the seriously deteriorating situation inside Rhodesia. When the so-called internal settlement was-concocted at Salisbury on 3 March 1978-about a year ago-Zambia told the world that the so-called settlement would not succeed. In fact, the internal settlement has settled nothing. If anything, it has transformed the situation in Zimbabwe from bad to worse. The issues are compounded and the situation is now fraught with ominous consequences, particularly for those living in and bordering on Rhodesia. 110. The internal settlement has failed to end the war. It has failed to end the war situation in Rhodesia because fundamental objectives have not been realized. The act of black-washing a white wall does not destroy the colour of the brick. Rhodesia today is firmly under minority racist rule as it has been since the unilateral declaration of independence. Africans who have been co-opted by the racist rulers have lamentably failed to change the infrastructure of racism. Power is .still in the hands of the racist whites. 111. Attempts by Smith to use co-opted Africans to win international recognition for his illegal regime have all come to naught. Rhodesia to&y remains an outcast and a leper in the international community. Let that be the situation until genuine majority rule is achieved. 112. The Zambian Government has repeatedly stated that it accords no significance to Smith’s manoeuvres. The internal settlement was just a trick by Smith to prolong the life of his illegal rule now that he has been cornered by the Patriotic Front forces and world opinion. 113. Concurrent with this development has been the militarization of Rhodesia. Smith is to all intents and purposes a hostage of General Peter Walls and his military machine. If Smith were not a dependent of Walls in decision-making, how could one expect a puppet African Prime Minister to control the Rhodesian forces? That would be to think the unthinkable. 115. Whilst all this immature politicking persists, the people of Zimbabwe are increasingly subjected to oppression and even genocide. Not surprisingly, Africans are shepherded into concentration camps, which are euphemistitally termed “protected villages’*. Personal security of either blacks or whites can no longer be guaranteed in present-day Rhodesia. Martial law has encompassed virtually the entire country. That shows that Rhodesia as a whole is a war zone. Forces of the Patriotic Front can now hit targets inside Salisbury, the Rhodesian capital. Even the Western media admit these facts. ,, 116. The upsurge of guerrilla warfare both in the countryside and, now, in urban centres means the entire country is in flames, thanks to the determination and clout of the fighting forces of Zimbabwe. Even if Smith attempts to find scapegoats in Zambia and other front-line States, the reality of the matter is that the fighting is taking place inside Rhodesia. 117. The forces of the Patriotic Front continue to score victories by the hour. Theirs is a just cause. That is why Zambia supports them fully. If all members of the world community were to adhere to the resolutions of the United Nations, then they would feel obliged to support people who are struggling for self-determination in accordance with General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV). 118. The situation in Rhodesia is deteriorating faster than most observers can grasp. Nothing can save the rebel racist regime from collapse. Phony elections will not help the situation. It is in fact illogical to pretend that genuine and free elections can be held in a country at war. It is physically impossible to do so. We understand that a bogus system of proportionate representation would be employed. What that means logically is that even if only 1,000 Africans out of a total population of over 4 million Africans over 18 years of age and eligible to vote actually voted, then the so-called internal political parties would share the spoils. Alternatively, it is being suggested that voters will be escorted to polling booths at gunpoint, ostensibly for protection. 119. Zambia is not opposed to elections per se. My country only three months ago emerged from a heavily contested general election. We have faith in the democratic system and genuine elections. Our objection to the so-called elections planned for Rhodesia stems from the fact that, first, they will not be free, because of the prevailing war situation, secondly, their aim is not to bring genuine independence and majority rule to that country but to entrench the racist and minority domination, and, thirdly, they are arranged under the auspices of a by-product of an illegal r+gime and are therefore considered illegal. 120. Zambia therefore calls on the Security Council to declare these so-called elections null and void and not to recognize any institution that may emerge therefrom. 122. While we are aware of the different systems of government in the world and their relationship with private institutions, especially in the West, we are not convinced that private institutions or individuals are free to do things that could bring the name of their country into disrepute. History has shown that institutions in any country-and the West is no exception-are obliged to conform scrupulously to the policies of the Governments. When, for example, the people of the Republic of Cuba were subjected to an economic embargo in 1962 by the United States, no private United States companies or persons went to that country. This argument that is advanced is therefore a hollow one. 123. Moreover, when Ian Smith visited the United States, the world was told that he had been invited by some very conservative Senators in the United States Senate. Smith came to this country and ended up meeting with some very top government offtcials, including the United States Secretary of State-ostensibly to convince Smith of the need to attend an all-party conference. Whether this was by default or design is not for us to judge. My delegation would appeal to these Governments to ensure that, in the interest of justice, their nationals or organizations will not go to Rhodesia. 124. It is because the whole election ploy scheduled for April 1979 is illogical, to say the least, that we wonder how respectable legislators in the West could fall for this scheme. How on earth could people who believe in the Emancipation Proclamation and the Magna Carta ever support a mockery of elections anywhere? 125. In 1977, the Security Council considered the Anglo- American proposals on Southern Rhodesia /S/12393] and adopted resolution 415 (1977), by which a special representative of the Secretary-General, General Prem Chand, was appointed to work in conjunction with Lord Carver, the Resident Commissioner designate, during Rhodesia’s transition to majority rule. One wonders what has become of these two respectable gentlemen. Could the interest now shown in the false elections to be held in Rhodesia be interpreted to mean the abandonment of the Anglo- American plan? My delegation believes that the Anglo- American plan, as originally proposed, formed a fair basis for negotiations on Rhodesia, but now it is clear that there is no political will on the part of the initiators of the plan. Furthermore, it is clear that a settlement which accepts the active participation of Ian Smith and his continuing in some way to be an integral part of the solution of the Rhodesian crisis is no solution. My delegation believes that no attempt to resolve the Rhodesian crisis which is not founded on a clear rejection and removal of Smith has any chance of succeeding. 126. Those concerned would do better to continue their efforts at bridging the gap between the parties to the conflict 127. The time has come for the Western countries to take full responsibility for the problem of Rhodesia. As far as we know, the United Kingdom is still the administering Power in Rhodesia. It has a responsibility to decolonize that colony. Zambia is aware that the West is not powerless. They could deal with Smith ifthey had the necessary political will Their actions are deliberate. We shall continue to hold them responsible both for the tragedies inside Rhodesia and for the aggression against the front-line States. 128. There are many ways in which the United Nations and individual States can assist in improving the situation. Member States should ensure that oil will not flow to the rebels to oil their war machine. The findings of the Bingham report in Britain must be followed up vigorously in order to plug all the loop-holes. The Security Council Committee on Sanctions has a vital role in this regard. The supply of arms to Rhodesia as well as all other activities intended to violate sanctions should not find anyone wanting or equivocating in moments when decisive action can save humanity from the scourge of war.

Mr. President, it is a special pleasure for my delegation to address you on this occasion and to convey to you cordial greetings. It is a pleasure for us to take this opportunity once again to recall the fraternal relations and the bonds of close friendship and co-operation at all levels that are continuously developing between Nigeria and Gabon. The occupancy of the presidency of the Council by an eminent African diplomat, Ambassador Leslie 0. Harriman, is a source of true satisfaction for all the sons of our continent, and it encourages us in our hope that this year will be fruitful in terms of constructive negotiations likely to strengthen the role and active contribution of the United Nations to the liberation ofsouthem Africa. I wish you every success in your important task, Mr. President, and assure you of the full co-operation of the delegation of Gabon. 130. Before proceeding to consider the agenda item, I wish to express the appreciation and satisfaction of the delegation of Gabon to your predecessor, Ambassador Bishara of Kuwait, for the manner in which he presided over the work of the Council last month and for the efforts he undertook throughout that month to reconcile the views of Council members on the question of South-East Asia. Although that matter is still pending, his initiatives and suggestions aimed at finding a peaceful solution testify to his high qualities as an experienced politician. 131. We all know that at present the world is engaged in an irreversible march towards the freedom of peoples, their self-determination and their accession to independence. This process has been interrupted in Rhodesia, where, in order to preserve its interests, a white minority of approximately 200,000 persons decided to usurp power from the colonial Power and to impose its law on a majority of 6 million blacks. Those blacks, because of the established political and socio-economic system, cannot take part in the life of their country, given the blind obstinacy of the white settlers, who are bent on going against the flow of history by disregarding contemporary developments. 139. Today, the African peoples, standing behind their leaders, are beginning to fight against all the evils of the major Powers. They are deeply convinced that the populations of southern Africa, whose courage and gallantry have been tempered in a drawn-out struggle, will step up their vigilance, strengthen their unity, persevere in the struggle and not cease to unmask the designs and plots of racism, colonialism, neo-colonialism and hegemonism until final victory. 133. Why should we continue to tolerate the threats of that handful of whites who continue to violate the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of free and independent countries Members of the Organization? I refer to Angola, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia. 134. Why should we not condemn all violations and manceuvres by that handful of whites and their lackeys, as well as their so-called elections, which are aimed at extending their minority rule, hoodwinking world public opinion and preventing Zimbabwe’s accession to independence? 140. It is for these reasons that the delegation of Gabon formally appeals to certain Member States that continue to maintain economic, military and other relations with the illegal Rhodesian regime which has betrayed the African cause, thus negating the efforts made by the United Nations. 135. What alternative solution could we, then, recommend today to the apostles of non-violence, when all the efforts of the administering Power are doomed to failure in view of the intransigence shown by Ian Smith, supported by Vorster’s discredited regime? 141. It is for those same reasons and bearing in mind the recent invasions into front-line countries and the socalled elections next April in Zimbabwe that my delegation would like to see our work culminate in a document in which the Council, first, called for the unconditional condemnation of the recent invasions by the illegal racist regime of that handful of whites in southern Africa and, secondly, considered as null and void the results of the elections to be held next April. 136. The Lusaka Manifesto states that: “We believe that all men have the right and the duty to participate, as equal members of the society, in their own Government.“’ Ian Smith’s regime continues for unworthy reasons to deny that right to the people of Zimbabwe. The international community should not accept Ian Smith’s attempts to prepare his fraudulent elections, which are aimed only at legitimizing his illegal r&me.

Mr. President, I should like to congratulate you on your accession to the presidency of the Security Council. While being the representative of a great African nation with which my country maintains very close and friendly relations, you are also a diplomat of great skill. With these qualities and your knowledge and experience, we are sure of the competence with which you will preside over our work during the present month. 137. The facts and figures now before the Council gives us a picture of the over-all situation in southern Africa. This is not the first time that the Council has met in order to consider complaints by Member States concerning brutal and vile acts of aggresssion committed against their sovereignty and territorial integrity by the racist minority regimes at Pretoria and Salisbury. The acts of those tigimes against independent neighbouring States as well as the escalation of violence, repression and terror against the national liberation struggle of the peoples of Zimbabwe are well known to members of the Council and to the international community as a whole. Such flagrant violations of international law and morality further highlight’the fact that the perpetuation of the vestiges of colonialism and racist policy is a source of constant tension, of aggression and of conflict, and seriously endangers peace and security on the African continent and throughout the world. At the same time, this indicates the desperate state in which the racists find themselves, faced with the courageous struggle for national liberation at a time when the will for freedom of the peoples of southern Africa is strengthened with every passing day. Those savage acts are part and parcel of their abortive attempts aimed at ending the national liberation struggle in that territory and at reducing the legitimate support and assistance given by Africans to the national liberation struggle of the people of Zimbabwe. 143. I should also like to express to Mr. Bishara of Kuwait the deepest appreciation of my de!egation for the most remarkable way in which he carried out his functions as President last month, bearing in mind the particularly diflicult task facing him. 144. I shall at this stage be very brief as we reserve the right to return at a later date to the substance of the problems before us today. If I am speaking at the outset of this debate, it is because this is the first time since my country’s election to the Security Council that a question concerning southern Africa-a region particularly close to our hearts-has been brought to our attention. Beyond its gravity and wide political repercussions, this question brings to us a more immediate sense of concern: we mourn for the victims of the murderous attacks of the Rhodesian armed forces in Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana. We wish to honour the memory of the victims of those attacks, and we want to express our full solidarity with the peoples and Governments of those friendly States. 138. It is on the basis of its commitment to equality and human dignity that free and independent Africa has always been against such inhuman acts. It is on that same basis and because they are faithful to universal principles that the 145. It is with indignation that we associate ourselves with all those who condemn the open aggressions of the Salisbury regime. This new and brutal intensification of the ’ OJicial Records of the General Assembl Annexes. agenda item 106, document A/77 !? F Twent -fourth Session. 4, para. ’ Ibid., para. 6. 146. For this reason, we vigorously express our repulsion with regard to those crimes. The danger that this escalation of the war represents for the whole of southern Africa and the sombre prospects for that area created by the situation justify the immediate condemnation of those acts by the Council. 147. I therefore wish to reiterate once again the fraternal solidarity of my Government and people for the peoples and Governments of the front-line States so severely affected in the past few days and to tell them that we deeply share their suffering and their anger. . 148. The PRESIDENT: The next speaker is the representative of Cuba. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. President, I would first of all extend to you the warmest congratulations of my delegation on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council. I am convinced that with your acknowledged skill and diplomatic experience you will be able successfully to conduct the discussions which the Council is now beginning. Cuba, which maintains excellent and historical ties of friendship with Nigeria, is pleased that its representative is presiding over the meetings of this exalted forum at precisely this time. 150. One month ago at Maputo, the beautiful and heroic capital of that sister country Mozambique, was host to the special session, at the ministerial level, of the Coordinating Bureau of Non-Aligned Countries. Its sole objective was the consideration of the situation in southern Africa and the reaflirmation of the militant solidarity of our movement with the national liberation movements that are struggling against racist oppression and for true independence in Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and with the frontline countries which form their rear-guard security and principal support. It is relevant at this time to quote a few paragraphs from the final communique of that important session. . /The speaker readoutparagraphs 19 to 25 of the annex to document S/13185.] 151. That accurate analysis of the situation prevailing in southern Africa is strengthened by the assertion-also included in the Maputo final communique-that 6‘ . . . the imperialist and colonialist forces were resolutely opposed to real independence in the region for they considered it a direct threat to their design of perpetuating their unbridled economic plunder and military domination of the subcontinent. Hence the freedom struggle, including the armed struggle,’ which has been raging in Namibia and Zimbabwe and which is gaining momentum in South Africa itself, is being subverted in order to rob the people of these countries of their inevitable victory.” [Para. 28.1 -_ 152. Of course, it is not the first time that the illegal regime of Ian Smith has militarily attacked the front-line 153. During the past two years the Salisbury criminals have acknowledged responsibility for approximately 20 major raids against Zimbabwean refugee camps in Zambia and Mozambique. In one of those alone, in October 1978, it was stated that approximately 1,500 refugees and Zimbabwe fighters had been massacred near Lusaka. Today the press informs us that the Rhodesian air force launched its fifth attack in under two weeks against a camp some 260 kilometres inside the territory of the People’s Republic of Mozambique. The Associated Press correspondent informs us from Salisbury that this is “the second attack against a base in Mozambique since another guerrilla movement, led by Joshua Nkomo, brought down a Rhodesian airline plane on 12 February, killing the 59 passengers. . . . These air attacks are considered to be an attempt to prevent any planned sabotage against the Rhodesian elections on 20 April rather than reprisals for the destruction of the plane.” 154. It is revealing that the press and the spokesmen of the imperialist Governments have remained unmoved in the face of the crimes which, throughout the past years, have been and are still being committed by their ally and protege Ian Smith, within and outside Rhodesia. Not a single word of condemnation has been pronounced by those persons, when the lives of African men, women, children and old people are in jeopardy. But we should note how they hasten to express their “horror” when the white oppressors are killed. In the case of the former, the mass media laconically inform us of the death of “guerrillas” or “black extremists”; but in the case of the latter they make full use of the vocabulary of invective to condemn the death of “innocent white civilians*‘. The culture of imperialism is brutal, racist and oppressive. Nor did we hear a single word of concern or condemnation when, in 1976, agents trained by the United States Central Intelligence Agency planted a bomb and assassinated 73 civilian passengers and the crew of a Cuban plane over Barbados. This is a clear, unadulterated demonstration of the brazen hypocrisy of the defenders of “Western civilization”. .’ . 155. When in 1965 the white minority racists of Rhodesia imposed the first “internal solution?‘, in rebellion against the United Kingdom decision to.grant independence to that colony and give power to the nationalist leaders, the Government of the United Kingdom, for the first time in history, refused to intervene militarily in one of its rebel colonies and-in the words of President Samora Machel- “organized a great diplomatic farce, with the support of international imperialism”. 162. The non-aligned countries declared unanimously at Maputo that breaking the vicious circle created by imperialism and the racist regimes depended on the armed liberation struggle, guided by the Patriotic Front in Zimbabwe and by SWAP0 in Namibia. It has been this struggle which has progressively reduced the effectiveness of the enemy manceuvres and has discredited and revealed their puppets. The Coordinating Bureau of Non-Aligned Countries has also recognized that “the Anglo-American proposals on Rhodesia have been overtaken by the progress of the armed liberation struggle being waged by the Patriotic Front and that they have lost their relevance’* and that the present struggle of the Patriotic Front, supported by the sanctions decreed by the international community, is a decisive factor in the liquidation of colonialism. Therefore, the Bureau appealed “to all members of the non-aligned movement and to all peace-loving, freedom-loving and democratic countries and forces throughout the world to increase their political, diplomatic, military and financial support for the liberation struggle of the Zimbabwean people, thus contributing to the independence of the Territory and the establishment of a just and lasting peace’/para. 471. 157. The vicissitudes of recent years demonstrate that the plans of imperialism, while allegedly aimed at promoting a peaceful and negotiated solution for Zimbabwe’s accession to independence and majority rule, have on the contrary been geared to buttressing the racist illegal Ian Smith regime. Whenever the internal situation of their proteges becomes untenable because of the military activities of the people’s forces united in the Patriotic Front, the imperialists invent a new alternative, they promise a new and infallible solution, this time one supported by Smith himself. As was aptly stated by the representative of a front-line State at the meeting of the non-aligned countries at Maputo, “whenever the rainy season approaches, imperialist plans for a peaceful settlement begin to sprout.” 158. Today, as in the past, imperialism is persisting in its strategy, a strategy which it has been using especially from 1974 on. Today, as in the past, imperialism’s basic concern is to divide the countries which support the liberation of Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa in order to root out the national liberation movement. 163. Cuba, which has always supported with great determination the liberation movements of southern Africa, feels that the time has come for the international community to give determined moral, political, financial and tnaterial support to the Zimbabwe patriots in order to accelerate the inevitable defeat of the illegal racist regime of Ian Smith. The Security Council must support the legitimate struggle of the Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe; it must once again condemn the racist regime of Rhodesia and those who support and encourage it, and strengthen the already existing sanctions; in sum, it should unequivocally support the liberation movements of southern Africa and the front-line countries which are valiantly and resolutely facing up to the acts of aggression of the Salisbury criminals, without wavering in their defence of and solidarity with the patriots of Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. 159. At the international level the objective of imperialism is to promote contradictions among the front-line States and sow confusion in the Organization of African Unity in order to eliminate that important instrument of the cause of the liberation of Africa. They also attempt to divide the national liberation movement and try to make the liberation struggle look like a civil war among factions of the liberation movement, thus confusing the international community and fragmenting its support. In this way they attempt to create conditions in which the lifting of the sanctions against Smith could be proposed in the United Nations. 160. Imperialism is no doubt preparing a large-scale intervention in southern Africa: first of all, because it cannot resign itself to losing the vast economic and strategic resources of the region-the so-called Cape Route and the great mineral deposits in the area which are vital in maintaining imperialist hegemony; secondly, because the maintenance of the racist regime in Zimbabwe is a highly important factor in guaranteeing the internal stability of the South African regime, a bastion of imperialist interests in southern Africa. 164. Those who intend to send observers to the bogus elections, cooked up by the Rhodesian racists and their “Uncle Toms” for hire-the traitors Sithole, Chirau and Muzorewa in order to confuse the world-and planned for 20 April, are doing so with the full knowledge that that is a miserable farce. What is even more serious, they know that that is a shameful betrayal of the legitimate interests of the people of Zimbabwe, who are supported by the intemational community, that it is a blatant attempt to prevent their accession to full and genuine independence, and that it is an explicit violation of resolution 423 (1978). 161. So long as there is no neo-colonialist leader of suffi-’ cient stature in Rhodesia, imperialists feel obliged to maintain the discredited Ian-Smith in power. Of course, they are not counting on the victory of the people, which they are attempting to prevent at all costs. All their attempts-the so-called plans for a peaceful solution-are endeavours to defend and maintain the present power structure, in other words the privileged social structure. Imperialism is actually attempting to prevent political and social change in a truly independent Zimbabwe from causing the collapse of the colonial capitalist economy. This, and this alone, is the key 165. In the view of my’delegation, the draft resolution which will be submitted by the non-aligned members of the Council must be inspired by the recommendations unanimously adopted by our Ministers for Foreign Affairs at the special session of the Co-ordinating Bureau held at Maputo, because they faithfully reflect the genuine interests of the people of Zimbabwe. The meeting rose at 6.55 p.m. HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS Unite 1 Nations publications may be obtained from bookstores and distributors throughout the world. 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