S/PV.2550 Security Council

I should like to inform members of the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of Congo, Indonesia, Kuwait, Qatar and Sri Lanka in which they request to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the agenda. In conformity with the usual 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 Council’s provisional rules of procedure. President: Mr. Leandre BASSOLE (Burkina Faso). Present: The representatives of the following States: Burkina Faso, China, Egypt, France, India, Malta, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Zimbabwe. Provisional agenda (S/Agenda/2550) 1. Adoption of the agenda At the invitation of the President, Mr. Samory (Congo), Mr. Alatas (Indonesia), Mr. Abulhassan (Kuwait), Mr. Al-Kawari (Qatar) and Mr. Wijewardane (Sri Lanka) took theplaces reservedfor them at the side of the Council chamber. 2. The question of South Africa: Letter dated 8 August 1984 from the Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/16692)

The first speaker for this meeting is the representative of Cuba. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. The meeting was called to order at 11.50 a.m. Adoption of the agenda The agenda was adopted. 4. Mr. VELAZCO SAN JOSE (Cuba) [interpretation from Spanish]: I wish first of all, Sir, to thank you and the other members of the Council for giving me this opportunity to make a statement during the Council’s consideration of this important item. It also pleases me to be participating during the presidency of a representative of an African country with which Cuba maintains close ties of friendship. We are certain that, with your experience and diplomatic skill, you will effectively guide the work of this body. The question of South Africa: Letter dated 8 August 1984 from the Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/16692)

In accordance with the decisions taken at the 2548th and 2549th meetings, I invite the representative of Algeria to take a place at the Council table, I invite the representatives of Argentina, Benin, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Mongolia, Nigeria, South Africa, the Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago and Yugoslavia to take the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber. 5. On 15 November 1983, the General Assembly considered the problem of the new racist constitution imposed by the Pretoria regime on the broad majority of the South African population. By 141 votes to none, with seven abstentions, resolution 3801 was adopted by the General Assembly which declared that the socalled constitutional proposals were contrary to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, that the results of the referendum held on 2 November 1983 were of no validity whatsoever and that the enforcement of the new constitution would inevitably aggravate tension and conflict in South Africa and in southern Africa as a whole. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Sahnoun (Algeria) took a place at the Council table; Mr. Muriiz (Argentina), Mr. Ogouma (Benin), Mr. Velazco San Jose (Cuba), Mr. Cksar (Czechoslovakia), Mr. Nyamdoe (Mongolia), Mr. Onobu (Nigeria), Mr. von Schirnding (South Africa), Mr, El-Fattal (Syrian Arab Republic), Mr. Kasemsri (Thailand), Mr. Alleyne (Trinidad and Tobago) and Mr. SiloviC (Yugoslavia) took the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber. 6. The General Assembly rejected the so-called constitutional proposals because it considered them to be an insidious manoeuvre by the racist minority regime . . 8. The General Assembly requested the Security Council to consider the implications of the so-called constitutional proposals and to take the necessary measures, in accordance with the Charter, to avert the aggravation of tension in South Africa and in southern Africa as a whole. 9. Moreover, the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, which comprises the majority of the membership of the United Nations, considered and denounced the “constitutional proposals”, stating that, apart from excluding the black population of South Africa and not granting real civil rights to Coloured or Asian persons, these are a massive fraud and an attempt to turn back the process of the emancipation of African peoples. 10. The position of the Non-Aligned Movement has been consistent and clear. The Seventh Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at New Delhi in March 1983, expressed ‘indignation at the introduction by the South African rBgime of these alleged reforms, and unreservedly condemned this act as another attempt to divide the oppressed people of South Africa and to consolidate and perpetuate apartheid and the dictatorship of the white minority . 11. That is a portion of the background to the position taken by the Governments that make up the United Nations and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries concerning the so-called constitutional reforms. 12. In fact, they have already been declared to be openly contrary to the Charter, a manoeuvre by the racist rdgime and its Western allies, especially the United States, and a fraud perpetrated upon international public opinion, 13. Actually, the new South African constitution has not changed any of the basic elements of apartheid, nor has it accepted any decision which could be considered as a peaceful development-however moderatewhich might indicate the possibility of a future of equality and full civil rights for the more than 70 per cent of the South African population which continues to live in oppression under the abhorrent racist system, 14. What is new in South Africa? The press in the host country of the United Nations and in other Western separate from the joint struggle with their black brethren for full civil rights, by means of a so-called parliamentary chamber, which is no chamber at all, and possesses no real powers. 15. Even the Western press has no alternative but to recognize that there must be a question mark over the so-called reforms of the system. For example, Newsweek has admitted: “Despite all his rhetoric, Botha has continued the harshest racial practice in the country’s history, Each year about 250,000 blacks have been obliged to go to desolate homelands, where they are confronted with a picture of a lack of schools, few jobs and little food, water and medical care. In the name of ‘national security’, thousands of blacks are routinely arrested. Last year alone more than 200,000 blacks were arrested for violations of the pass laws, an increase of 90 per cent since 1981. The Government destroys the houses of blacks, obliging them to emigrate from their marginal slums of corrugated iron shacks and mud huts, and their ‘new houses’ frequently consist of junked automobiles on vacant lots with branches and plastic planks all tacked together.” 16. It is here, in the oppression of the overwhelming majority of the population of South Africa, that we must seek true changes and also the true reforms of apartheid, if any are to take place. For those broad majorities the only reform is that there has been more brutal repression and more systematic violations of human rights, with an even gloomier future for their descendants. 17. Who adopted the new constitution? The answer is that 2.7million white South Africans, barely 10 per cent of the total black population, have arrogated to themselves the right to draft the fundamental law of lhe country. It would be simple-minded to suppose that in the circumstances of aparfheid even those whites can express, or be guided by, the finest sentiments of the human being. They went to the polls to vote on a constitution which will guarantee the continuation of their privileges and which will certainly not endanger white supremacy or hegemony in South Africa. 18. The South African Parliament now has three chambers, with one for Coloureds and another for Asians. But will they be able to discuss in those chambers, which are designed from a racist point of view, the 19. If the new constitution has not changed the wretched existence of the black majority of South Africa, nor given them any rights, and if the limited civil rights received by the Asians and Coloured persons are not truly such, what has been reformed? Nothing has been reformed. 20. What is new in South Africa is the increasing awareness in the African masses that their rights will be won only through sweat and blood and that the upartheid regime and its allies are being obliged to seek formulas to attempt to cover up the dirty and universally condemned face of apartheid, obliged by the African masses’ struggle and the international pressure initiated by the Non-Aligned Movement, the socialist countries and other progressive forces, which have finally been joined by a number of Western countries, perhaps a little reluctantly, while the United States has done its best to block this movement. 21. Only a short time ago one of the most important capitalists in South Africa said clearly that it was necessary urgently to seek formulas which would make it possible, without modifying the system, “to adopt measures to prevent an uprising among the 20 million blacks”. 22. The adoption of the new constitution of South Africa, the open support of the present United States Administration for Pretoria, Botha’s tour of Western Europe and the press campaign to which I have already referred are all component parts of the campaign to make Pretoria, its racist policy and its acts of aggression against the front-line States palatable to the public opinion of Europe and the United States. 23. It is not possible to analyse any element of the situation in southern Africa if we disregard apartheid, the occupation of Namibia and the acts of aggression and destabilization against those countries. It is all one package, designed to preserve and extend racism and its rule. 24. I cannot conclude without recalling here the heroic struggle of the fighters of the African National Congress of South Africa (ANC), truly a factor which will one day bring about real change in South Africa, resulting in a democratic system under which South Africans of all races will have equal rights. 25. The Security Council has an obligation to condemn and reject the new constitution of South Africa and to make it quite clear that in the Council’s view nothing has changed and that the uparthcidrkgime must be ostracized, never to emerge from that ostracism.

Allow me, first, Sir, to offer you the sincere congratulations of the Mongolian delegation on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for the current month. We are convinced that under your able leadership the Council will successfully discharge its responsibilities. My delegation expresses its gratitude to you and to the other members of the Council for giving me an opportunity to address the Council on the matter under consideration. 28. The’attention of the Council has once again been drawn to the situation in southern Africa in connection with the so-called constitutional reforms undertaken by the Pretoria regime. As is known, these so-called constitutional reforms have already been condemned and rejected by the General Assembly at its last session as another criminal action of South Africa, designed further to entrench white minority rule and apartheid. The General Assembly also requested the Security Council to consider the serious implications of the so-called constitutional proposals as a matter of urgency [resoletion 38111 of 15 November 19831. 29. These manoeuvres of the Pretoria regime must be viewed in the overall context of the racist policy of South Africa aimed at the perpetuation of minority supremacy. At the same time the so-called constitutional reforms are designed to divide the unity of the oppressed people of South Africa, as well as to sow and foment the seeds of enmity and hatred among them. Thus, new attempts are being made to consolidate the abhorrent policy of apartheid, which has been repeatedly condemned and qualified by the world community as a crime against humanity and as a threat to international peace and security. It should also be noted that this inhuman policy not only is practised in South Africa itselfbut is also extended to Namibia, a Territory illegally occupied by the racist regime. 30. Moreover, new acts of aggression are being perpetrated by Pretoria against neighbouring independent African States. This can be seen in the continued occupation by Pretoria of a part of the territory of Angola. It is evident that the apartheid regime of South Africa would have been unable arrogantly to defy world public opinion and the numerous decisions and resolutions of the United Nations had it not enjoyed every assistance and support on the part of certain Western Powers. 31. The position of Mongolia on the problems of southern Africa is well known. My Government has consistently supported the just struggle of the peoples of the African continent against colonial domination, racism and apartheid. This invariable policy of my Government is a matter of record in the United Nations, 33. My delegation expresses its hope that the Security Council will take all necessary measures to force the South African regime to comply with the United Nations decisions and to renounce its repressive policies.

The next speaker is the representative of Kuwait. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 35. Mr. ABULHASSAN (Kuwait) [interpretation jlom Arabic]: May I be permitted at the outset, Sir, to congratulate you sincerely on your accession to the presidency of the Council for the month of August. You are a prominent son of Africa and a representative of your friendly country Burkina Faso. I am confident that you will preside over the work of the Council with your well-known wisdom and firmness. 36, I also wish to convey to your predecessor, Mrs. Jeane Kirkpatrick, the representative of the United States, our appreciation for her stewardship of the Council during the past month. 37. The Council is meeting once again in a context which has become familiar to the international community: the persistence of the South African Government in its oppressive practices. These practices have taken numerous forms and aspects-military, economic, political-there are regional aspects to the attacks against neighbouring African States, there are colonial aspects to the occupation of Namibia, as there are also internal aspects to the persecution and repression of the black majority in South Africa, who have a legitimate right to live and to participate in government. 38. Our current deliberations represent an attempt to deal with these practices, despite the unfounded argument of South Africa’s representatives that these discussions are to be considered as intervention in the internal affairs of that country. The fact of the matter is that it is the so-called Government of South Africa that is imposing its will by force and persecution, intervening in the affairs of a people which has not been provided a genuine, legitimate chance to choose its rulers, or to participate in setting up a political model and a constitutional framework for its country. 39. The racist South African Government’s exploitation of institutions which it calls “constitutional” cannot confer legitimacy upon unfair laws or upon the practices undertaken by these institutions, Those laws and practices are based on the spurious policy of apartheid, of hegemony of the minority over the majority, of making the original inhabitant a stranger in his own country. “that only the total eradication of apartheid and the establishment of a non-racial democratic society based on majority rule, through the full and free exercise of adult suffrage by all the people in a united and non-fragmented South Africa, can lead to a just and lasting solution of the explosive situation in South Africa”. 41. Our deliberations today are to be viewed in the context of the stand which the international community has taken since last November when the General Assembly, in paragraph 6 of the aforementioned resolution, requested the Security Council to consider the serious implications of the so-called constitutional proposals and to take all necessary measures, in accordance with the Charter, to avert the further aggravation of tension and conflict in South Africa and in southern Africa as a whole. If the members of the Council are to be true to themselves, their responsibility is clear. The international responsibility of this Council is to refuse to give legitimacy to fake allegations and to reject the so-called constitutional proposals which are aimed at enslaving the vast majority of the population. Finally, it must not pay heed to any allegations which describe the imaginary advantages of that constitution, We sincerely hope that the Council, and particularly its permanent members, will live up to the responsibility which has been placed upon them as members of the organ responsible for considering questions of international peace and security and unequivocally reject the latest manoeuvres by South Africa. 42. Mr. ICAZA GALLARD (Nicaragua) [interpretation from Spanish]: I should like, Sir, to offer to you our most sincere and cordial congratulations on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for this month. Your country and mine are united by a number of common factors, by faith in the same principles and by a shared desire for peace. We are quite sure that under your guidance the work of the Council will reach a successful conclusion. Your diplomatic and political abilities will be called upon to give this important organ the necessary dynamism in order to discharge the lofty 43. Once again the international community must speak out to condemn the conduct of South Africa which shows conspicuous contempt for human values and the international norms and principles shared by the Member States of this Organization-norms and principles that are the basis for the harmonious and peaceful existence of States and for the development and self-determination of peoples. 44. It is with just indignation that the whole of Africa has come to the meetings of the Council in order to condemn and reject the insidious manoeuvres of the apartheid regime, which are designed to perpetuate that odious system, to divide the heroic people of South Africa and to deceive the international community. But their efforts will be in vain, because all of us present here, without exception and regardless of the special interests which may connect certain Members to that odious rkgime, clearly understand what really lies hidden behind those so-called constitutional reforms. With equal certainty the heroic people of South Africa will prove able to foil this crude trap and will renew its struggle to eradicate the apartheid rkgime with increased force and unity. 45. Through the so-called new constitution, the South African Government proposes to establish a tricameral parliament, consisting of 178 white representatives, 85 representatives of so-called Coloureds-or persons of mixed race-and 45 representatives of persons of Asian origin. 46. Together the whites, Coloureds and Asians make up 7.8 million, which is barely 27 per cent of the total population of South Africa. This system, apart from the fact that it denies the indigenous population, which make up the large majority, their legitimate rights, is designed to perpetuate the power of the white minority. 47. The exclusion of the indigenous majority has been “justified” by the establishment of 10 entities known as “independent bantustans”. About 10 million Africans have been expelled and compelled to live in those bantustans, which cover only an area of 12.7 per cent of the total territory of South Africa. The other 87.3 per cent has been declared the territory of “white South Africa”, in which the indigenous inhabitants, the true masters of the soil of South Africa, are deemed to be foreigners. The so-called reforms do not end there. According to those reforms, it is to be decreed that each “racial group” should only be able to discuss in its respective chamber its “own affairs”. And the one who would have final say over what constitutes each racial group’s “own affairs” would be the President, who would always be a member of the party of the majority 48. In this way, the so-called new constitution, which was approved on 2 November 1983 by an exclusively white electorate of South Africa, does not alter the bantustanization policy of the apartheid rtlgime. Far from that, it institutionalizes that policy and perpetuates the power of the Nationalist Party of the white minority. That is what really lies hidden behind what some have been touting as a recipe for “gradual change” or a “step in the right direction”. 49. The situation which we are now debating in the Security Council and the related question of the socalled elections provide a good opportunity for the super-Power allied to South Africa, a super-Power which gives lectures on democracy and elections, to reveal what in practice it understands democracy and elections to mean. 50. It is evident to all that South Africa is perpetuating and perfecting its ignominious racist rkgime, committing constant acts of aggression against the front-line brother States and continuing its illegal occupation of Namibia, creating an explosive situation in the whole of southern Africa, posing a terrible threat to international peace and security. And this it is able to do precisely because of the protection and encouragement it enjoys from the policy of so-called constructive engagement. 51. An intensive campaign is taking place to rehabilitate the apartheid regime. South Africa is being armed with ultra-modern weapon systems. Foreign economic investments exceed $14 billion, This military and economic co-operation is creating a whole series of political and diplomatic links which, with each passing day, are making it more difficult for certain countries to condemn and reject the odious Nazi system designed by Pretoria. This trend should give us food for thought and reason for alarm, because behind it Pretoria is widening and entrenching its apartheid system. 52. My country’s position with regard to this abominable situation has been clear ever since the revolutionary triumph that put an end to the Somozist dictatorship on 19 July 1979. Last year, during the debates that preceded the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 38/l 1, the Nicaraguan delegation made it quite clear that in the case of apartheid there could be but one single and immutable goal: the total eradication of apartheid from the face of the earth. The problem of southern Africa cannot be resolved as long as the apartheid system exists. Only a non-fragmented South Africa where a racist and inhuman minority does not hold sway and where the dignity of all its citizens is recognized and they are all treated as human beings on an equal footing can provide the basis for a just and lasting peace in the region. 54. We place our faith and hope in the determination of the people of South Africa to stay united. The revolutionary and fighting spirit of Soweto must eventually triumph over obscenity and barbarity. We are even more encouraged after the statement made by the representative of the ANC. The movement to boycott these so-called elections, co-ordinated by the United Democratic Front, comprising more than 600 organizations with a common purpose, is additional proof of the unity and determination of the South African people once and for all to put an end to the Pretoria regime. This great movement deserves our full support and admiration, and it must be seen as an invitation for concerted international action which, above and beyond mere words and declarations, will bring effective pressure to bear and thus mark the beginning of the end of this disgrace to mankind. 55. Mr. KRAVETS (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) [interpretation from Russian]: Sir, allow me first to congratulate you on your assumption of the presidency of the Council. We are convinced that under your wise and able guidance the Council will successfully discharge its responsibilities. 56. We should also like to pay tribute to the representative of the United States, who presided over the Council last month. 57. Despite the clearly and unequivocally expressed will of the international community in its decisive condemnation of the farce of constitutional reforms in South Africa, the Pretoria racist regime intends to hold so-called elections, on 22 and 28 August, and officially to implement the “new” constitution of South Africa. 58. The General Assembly, in its resolution 38/11, adopted on 15 November 1983, the Organization of African Unity and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, in documents issued this year, categorically rejected these manoeuvres by the South African racists as running counter to the principles of international law and the fundamental provisions of the Charter of the United Nations. They indicated that the results of the white referendum had no validity whatsoever and that the imposition of the proposed constitution would inevitably lead to an aggravation of tension and conflict in South Africa and in southern Africa as a whole. The election of “Coloured” people and people of Asian origin to the South African parliament, pursuant to the odious plot of the racist Government of South Africa, 59. The delegation of the Ukrainian SSR supports the initiative of the Group of African States, which has seen fit to request the Council to state its views on the force of the constitutional transformation of the apartheid regime. We have no illusions about the counter-reaction of the Pretoria regime. As has happened so often in the past, the South African racists this time also will disregard the decision of the Council. However, once again the will of the international community will be set forth in a document of the supreme body of the United Nations system, whose decisions are binding on all Member States. 60. The bogus constitutional reforms by South Africa confer half-baked pseudo-rights on the Coloured people and the people of Asian origin in South Africa and legalize the deprivation of any rights whatsoever for the indigenous black population, comprising three quarters of the population. They seek to perpetuate this shameful, inhuman system of apartheid. The statements made at times by certain delegations that the constitutional reforms in South Africa are a step in the right direction are absolutely groundless. 61. Like the overwhelming majority of States Members of the United Nations, the Ukrainian SSR believes that the nefarious manoeuvres of the racist regime of Pretoria and cosmetic prettying up of the policy and practices of apartheid are an affront to the conscience of mankind; they trample underfoot elementary human rights and fundamental freedoms and grossly violate the principles and norms of international law. 62. Apartheid, which is a heinous international crime and a sinister threat to international peace in the region, cannot be transformed into a democratic system. Only its total elimination will mark the beginning of progressive reforms in South Africa. 63. The implementation of the policy of apartheid would be impossible without the all-round assistance given to the South African racists by the United States of America and a number of other Western countries. The American Administration’s policy of “constructive engagement” with South Africa, the diplomatic cover-up and the political support of the Pretoria racists by the United States internationally-including in the Security Council, where the United States and some of its allies block the adoption of truly effective measures against the illegal apartheid regime-the broad-based economic and nuclear collaboration between the United States and South Africa, the contravening of the many United Nations decisions and appeals by the international community-all have acted as guarantees for the inhuman system of apartheid and made it invulnerable. apartheid, including the adoption by the Council of comprehensive binding sanctions against South Africa in accordance with Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

The next speaker is the representative of Benin, I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 66. Mr. OGOUMA (Benin) [interpretation from French]: Mr. President, at the outset I should like to express my gratitude for the honour you have conferred upon me in allowing me to address the representatives of States members of the Council at a time when it is considering the question of the so-called new racial constitution of South Africa. We are indeed pleased to see you presiding over the work of the Council this current month. As a worthy son of Africa, and more specifically of the great Burkina Be people, with which my people is honoured to share the same ideals of peace, prosperity, freedom and dignity, and with your qualities and skills, you are very well placed not only to understand the tribulations of our oppressed brothers of South Africa but also to induce the Council to face up to its responsibilities in the struggle the international community is waging against racism and apartheid. 67. I should like to offer your predecessor, the representative of the United States, our congratulations on having conducted the work of the Council last month. 68. As if all the crimes it has committed thus far have not already exceeded all bounds, as if we could still find in the world an individual or State that could believe all its lies, the racist clique of Pretoria has once again been cynically preparing to add a charade to all its misdeeds. What other word is there for this masquerade the apartheid regime intends to conduct in the near future? What can we call this electoral referendum in which more than 73 per cent of the population has not been asked to participate, the purpose of which is merely to strengthen a system that has been so condemned, the apartheid system? 69. A category of people, the Coloureds and persons of Asian origin, will be voting in the near future, in implementation of the so-called new constitution of South Africa, which has been unanimously condemned by the entire international community and in particular by the General Assembly, which in its resolution 38/l 1 of 15 November 1983 rejected the so-called constitutional proposals as contrary to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and declared that the results of the referendum were of no validity what- 70. This so-called constitution creates three houses in Parliament: a house for the whites, a house for the representatives of the Coloureds and a house of deputies for persons of Asian origin. It ignores the very existence of 24 million black Africans who are denied the right to citizenship in their native land. 71. As the Council is aware, this is not the first misdeed by the apartheid regime. Its very existence is but a long succession of pretences, and the dastardly laws that now constitute its arsenal of repression against the black majority of the South African people have not come about only today. I shall cite some of them: the South Africa Act of 1909, which confiscated all power for the white minority and denied African blacks their most elementary rights, in particular their inalienable right to a fatherland; the Group Areas Act of 1948, which instituted segregation in residential areas and in work places; the Population Registration Act of 1950, which divided the people into racial categories and made it obligatory for Africans to hold identification cards known as passes that must be presented at all times and in all places. Finally, I do not think there is any need to recall the birth certificate of the Republic of South Africa, which as everyone knows was created in 1961 following a racist referendum limited exclusively to a white electorate. 72. The most deplorable consequences of all these misdeeds were the 1960 Sharpeville massacre and the 1976 Soweto massacre. Despite the magnitude of the means of repression of the racist regime, the black people have constantly struggled heroically to assert their rights. They will certainly foil this latest provocation, as they have past provocations, 73. The recent charade was merely an act of desperation, a last-ditch attempt by the racists to protect themselves from the death-blows being dealt by the resistance of the South African freedom fighters. By giving limited political rights to Coloureds and persons of Asian origin, the so-called constitution imposes on them conscription into the racist South African army and seeks to break the united front that blacks, Coloureds and Asians have always formed against oppression, thus obliging the oppressed to take up arms against the oppressed. 74. Above and beyond this cynicism we cannot fail to see a confession here: a confession of weakness, if not failure, by a regime which to keep itself going needs to divide, which to survive needs to pursue its inhuman policies of repression and needs more cannon fodder. 75. But this confession could not be stated. Quite the contrary: a shameful propaganda campaign was launched in an effort to pass off the so-called constitutional proposals as reforms of the apartheid sys- 76. It is up to the Council, like the General Assembly, categorically to reject this sham, which merely institutionalizes apartheid. It is up to the Council to impress upon the South African racists that only the complete eradication of apartheid and the establishment of a democratic society free of distinctions as to race, based on the principle of majority government, with full and free exercise of the right to vote by all adults in a united, non-bantustanized South Africa, can lead to a just and lasting solution to the explosive situation prevailing in South Africa, 77. Ready for the revolution; the struggle continues.

The next speaker is the representative of the Congo. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 79. Mr. SAMORY (Congo) [interpretation from French]: I should like, first of all, Sir, to say that it is a real pleasure and an agreeable duty for me to offer you my delegation’s congratulations on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for this month of August, a very decisive month, since it calls upon our struggling brothers in South Africa and the entire international community to prepare themselves to foil the latest plot now being hatched by the racist regime of Pretoria. In doing so, I wish to stress our legitimate pride in seeing the representative of Burkina Faso, a friendly sistercountry with which my country is united by very recent links of solidarity and co-operation, assuming with enthusiasm the weighty task of presiding over the Council at such a decisive time. Your personal qualities, combined with the seriousness you have always demonstrated, are a guarantee of the success of the current deliberations. 80. I should also like to pay tribute to your predecessor, the representative of the United States, whose leadership of the work of the Council last month was outstanding. 81. The purpose of the present meetings is clear. This Council, as many who spoke before me have already stressed, must reaffirm forcefully and solemnly the international community’s condemnation of the South .African regime and its obstinate determination to implement so-called constitutional reforms. 82. Everyone knows that South Africa has been one of the most serious problems for the world conscience since the end of the Second World War. The segregationist regime-apartheid-which has ruled there since 1948 is nothing less than modern-day nazism. Having established domination of the white race over the nonwhite races, apartheid, like nazism, has persecuted and 83. The shameful stubbornness of South Africa-now legendary-in flouting the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly cannot and shall never conquer our commitment and our determination to see justice and peace triumph throughout the world, and especially in that part of Africa. Therefore, we shall never tire of reacting whenever the racist, minority, unrepresentative regime of South Africa commits criminal acts against our South African brothers. The purpose of the present debate, as we have said many times before, is to call on the Security Council to continue to shoulder its responsibilities by using all the resources conferred on it by the Charter of the United Nations when international peace and security are threatened. 84. Yesterday [254&h meeting] we listened with indignation to the snide comments made by the representative of South Africa. They deserve no comment from us, except the scorn they warrant. We wish only to remind that representative that apartheid is a crime against human conscience and dignity. Therefore, the international community must take full cognizance of that crime in order to castigate it. What we are considering today is not a South African domestic problem; it is neither more nor less than a formula aimed at making apartheid more sophisticated and at lulling the international community. 85. General Assembly resolution 38111 of 15 November 1983 is more relevant than ever before. The elections to take place on 22 and 28 August, we are convinced, have been causing and will continue to cause a real exacerbation of social tension among the South African populations. The international community has condemned the very principle of these socalled constitutional reforms; it must be consistent and must strongly condemn their implementation. ‘86. The international community, through the Council, has now been called upon to act. My delegation is convinced that, at the end of the current debate, based on the purposes and principles of the Charter, it will take the appropriate counter-measures that will strip any legitimacy from the pernicious manoeuvres of the racist regime of South Africa. 87. Let me say a few words about the situation in Namibia and Angola; where South Africa-for it is 88. Finally, the delegation of Congo, having taken note of the draft resolution submitted by Burkina Faso, Egypt, India, Malta, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru and Zimbabwe [S/16700], supports it fully and calls for its adoption by the Council.

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

I take this opportunity, Sir, to thank you, and through you the members of the Council, for giving me this opportunity of addressing the Council on the question of South Africa. 91. It is also my pleasant duty to extend to you our congratulations and good wishes on your assumption of the presidency for the month of August. My delegation is confident that, under your wise counsel and guidance, and with your known diplomatic skills, the deliberations of the Council will see to it that the entire international community is satisfied that justice and impartiality will prevail. 92. It is my pleasure also to thank Mrs. Kirkpatrick of the United States, the President of the Council for the month of July, for the able manner in which the work was guided during that month. 93. My delegation has asked to speak to support the Member States that have already addressed the Council rejecting the so-called constitutional reforms of the Pretoria regime. The subject we are discussing was the focus of the attention of the international community during the thirty-eighth session of the General Assembly, when the Assembly by an overwhelming majority adopted resolution 38/11 of 15 November 1983 which categorically rejected the “ ‘constitutional proposals’ and all insidious manoeuvres by the racist minority regime of South Africa further to entrench white minority rule and apartheid”. 94. My delegation was one of the sponsors of that resolution. Sri Lanka has time and again spoken out in all forums against discriminatory practices which violate the ethics of human conduct, and it is totally opposed to distinctions based on class, creed and colour. 95. The concept of liberty, justice and equality demands an appreciation of the dignity of man. All Member States subscribing by word and deed to such ideals must surely speak out against a practice that makes invidious distinctions based on the colour of one’s skin. The very concept of dividing mankind on the basis of skin pigmentation reveals immediately an immaturity of understanding and lack of appreciation of mankind’s greatest cultural inheritance-namely, his dignity as a human being. A community or State which refuses to recognize the dignity of man must surely wander into the wilderness in the course of time and perish there, unwept and unsung. 96. Over 70 per cent of the inhabitants of South Africa cannot be bypassed by the mainstream of twentiethcentury society, and it is our moral duty to speak up for them at this moment of history. The United Nations helped rapid decolonization and the establishment of States on the basis of the inherent right of all men to determine their own systems of government without let or hindrance from outside and external pressures. The right to self-determination can be established to the full satisfaction of that term only in a milieu where human dignity and human rights are respected and preserved. In terms of that definition, the constitution of a State must, while assuring the right of the State to its sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, assure all the citizens, without distinction, their inheritance as human beings of their rights and privileges, enshrined for all time in the Charter of the United Nations, on the basis of principles for which men have fought and laid down their lives. 97. The nation which plays host to us in New York is but one striking example of the principle that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”. My country imbibed this message through the intervention of a distinguished American citizen, who, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, through his ministrations to the indigenous population, aroused in them a dignity and determination to take Sri Lanka along the peaceful path to regain its sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. 98. We are passing through the last years of a century distinguished in the annals of human history for its liberal thinking, and with the next millennium on our doorstep it is our duty and obligation to the rest of our fellow human beings, wherever they are fighting oppression and tyranny, to help them stand on their own feet at the earliest possible opportunity so that they may 99. It is in a spirit of compassion for the vast majority of the South African people that we point out to the Government of South Africa that it should not halt this march of mankind by perpetuating distinctions between its citizens on the basis of skin pigmentation, If the Government of South Africa is committed to hastening the progress of all its people to the goal of a democratic and egalitarian society, as it professes, it must choose the right modality for hastening that progress. It must remember that a minority cannot impose authoritarian rule on a majority people in any form, guise or design. 100. The Government of South Africa would do very well to remember that by its policies it is perpetuating its isolation from the community of nations, Let not that isolation be total in the future. 101. My intervention now is to add the voice of Sri Lanka to the international chorus that vibrates and reverberates in all the councils of nations demanding freedom, justice and equality as the inherent right of the 70 per cent of South Africans left out in the cold. Our deliberations, hopefully, will result in a common response from the Council, demanding that South Africa abandon its so-called constitutional reforms and be guided by its conscience and introduce such reforms as would confer upon all its citizens, without distinction, the dignity and rights that they must enjoy.

The next speaker is the representative of Czechoslovakia, whom I invite to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 103. Mr. C&AR (Czechoslovakia): Sir, let me thank you and all the other members of the Council for giving me this opportunity to express the position of the Czechoslovak delegation on the issue before the Council. At the same time, I congratulate you on your assumption of the important and responsible office of President of the Council and express my conviction that your professional and personal qualities are a guarantee of your successful conduct of this office in the spirit of the progressive, non-aligned and peaceful policy of your country. 104. The negative internal and international consequences of the racist policy of apartheid pursued by the Government of South Africa have been on the agenda of the leading bodies of the Organization practically since its very establishment. The Security Council, too, is compelled to deal with a number of manifestations of the apartheid policy, which treads underfoot the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law and threatens international peace and security. 106. The apartheid theories are being carried out in the policy of the Pretoria regime by means of many reprehensible measures: systematic segregation, the programme of bantustanization, and violation of the political and civil rights of the non-white population. Any opposition or resistance to these measures by the people results in cruel punishment. Administrative repression, arbitrary action, violence and murder are used against the opponents of apartheid and fighters for racial equality. 107. Such are the concrete manifestations of upartheid. The Government of Pretoria is doing all it can to maintain the system of apartheid in spite of the increasing opposition at home and protests from abroad. This is also the purpose of the so-called constitutional reforms approved by a whites-only vote on 2 November 1983. It is intended to drive a wedge’ between the oppressed victims of apartheid, to expand, at least partially, its social basis, so as to include in the repressive apparatus other groups of the population and make apartheid more acceptable to some strata of the population of Western countries. It is an attempt to hoodwink public opinion, which has been rightfully and resolutely condemned by the Organization, with the exception of some Western States, and by the entire international community. Such manoeuvres confirm the justification of resolute forms of struggle for the consistent eradication of apartheid, including armed struggle. 108. This struggle has become even more inevitable because apartheid does not confine itself to acts of oppression and repression in South Africa, but carries out attacks on other States. The Pretoria rCgime, using naked armed force, is continuing to occupy Namibia illegally and to prevent the Namibian people from exercising its rights to self-determination. In the interests of the United States strategy directed against the progressive development of Angola, it has made inadmissible and totally illegal demands linking the issue of granting the Namibian people independence with the withdrawal of the internationalist Cuban forces in Angola. The rulers of South Africa can take credit for the many acts of direct armed aggression and subversive activities which have been carried out against independent African States. The broad-scale aggression of the Pretoria rdgime has led to a situation in which the southern part of Africa has been turned into a dangerous hotbed of international tension. 109. The factor enabling Pretoria to carry out, and in many respects to strengthen, the system of apartheid, might say, life-giving for the maintenance of that sysolutely reject the crimes of the system of apartheid and tern is the policy of the so-called constructive engageare in full solidarity with the struggle of the people of ment pursued by the United States Government and South Africa against racial oppression. They condemn adopted by some of its allies. Clearly, it did not help all attempts by Pretoria at introducing any cosmetic eliminate apartheid or reach a lasting just settlement changes of apartheid, and similar manoeuvres, such of the situation in southern Africa. On the contrary, it as the so-called constitutional reforms. They are conrepresents a serious obstacle to the adoption and imvinced that these measures will lead to a further limitaplementation of effective measures by the United Nation of fundamental human rights of the large majority tions and, specifically, the Security Council, that would of the South African population, to a further deterioralead to the elimination of apartheid in accordance with tion of the situation in that country; that these measthe will of the international community. ures will create increased tension and delay possibilities for resolvinn the serious Droblems created bv 110. The Western States co-operating with South South Africa’s aggressive polici&s in the southern pak Africa are willingly accepting Pretoria’s argumentation of Africa. Czechoslovakia fully associates itself with about the process of gradual changes in the system of the content of General Assembly resolution 38111, of apartheid within the so-called constitutional reforms 15 November 1983, and it will support such measures and thus justify their open co-operation with South adopted by the Security Council that will constitute a Africa in all fields and even its further expansion. The reaffirmation and further elaboration of that resolution. course and the results of the recent trip by the Prime The meeting rose at 1.20 p.m. HOW TO OBTAIN UMTED NATIONS PUBLKCATIONS United Nations publications ma> be obtained from hookstnrcs and distributors throughout the world. Consult your bookstore or write to: United Nation\. Sales Section. New York or Geneva. COMMENT SE PROCURER LES PUBLICATIONS DES NATIONS UNIES Les publications des Nations Unies sent en vente dam les librairies et Its agences depositaires du monde entier. 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