S/PV.2560 Security Council

I should like to inform members of the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of Ethiopia and South Africa 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 accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure. If I hear no objection, I shall take it that the Council decides to accede to this request. It was so decided. 4. This meeting of the Council has been convened in accordance with the request made by the representative of Ethiopia, on behalf of the Group of African States, in a letter dated 17 October addressed to the President of the Council [S/16786]. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Dinka (Ethiopia) took a place at the Council table, and Mr. von Schirnding (South Africa) took the place reserved for him at the side of the Council Chamber. 5. I should like to draw the attention of members of the Council to document S/16764, which contains the text of a note by the Secretary-General transmitting the

I should like to inform members of the Council that I have received a letter dated 23 October from the 6. The first speaker is the representative of Ethiopia, who wishes to make a statement in his capacity as Chairman of the Group of African States for the month of October. I invite him to make his statement.

On behalf of the Group of African States at the United Nations and on my own behalf, allow me to congratulate you, Sir, on your accession to the presidency of the Council. We in the African Group feel particularly fortunate to have you presiding over the deliberations on the situation in South Africa, for we know full well your commilment to the struggle of the South African people against the evil system of institutionalized racism. Let me also express our appreciation to you and to the other members of the Council for responding to our request to convene this meeting and for allowing me to address the council to introduce the item. 8. Decades have now passed since apartheid became the national policy of the Government of South Africa and a way of life for the people of that country. 9. In the name of separate development, the races of South Africa have been compartmentalized, with the whites getting the best and the blacks the worst. The whites have appropriated everything and the blacks have been left with nothing. In one country we find separate societies. In that same country we find the settlers citizens and the indigenous people stateless. 10. In the warped logic of Pretoria, the blacks are not stateless; they have their bantustans. To the racist rB gime in Pretoria, the problem of the human and national rights of the black South African people has been settled once and for all through the process of bantustanization. Accordingly, blacks will be uprooted from their ancestral homes and will be settled in the barren wastelands of South Africa to form their caricature homelands, with all the trappings of an independent State, What a mockery and what a travesty of justice! Fortunately, the world has rejected as illegal and of no consequence these counterfeit entities. 11. The odious Pretoria regime, however, immune as usual to the precepts ofjustice and reason, has not only continued to pursue this policy of bantustanization with increased vigour but has recently endeavoured “to solve” the problem of the so-called Coloured people and those of Asian origin in its characteristic fashion. We all know of the so-called constitutional reforms in South Africa, their substance and the motives behind them, We also know of the subsequent so-called referendums and elections. 12. This constitutional subterfuge is an excellent example of the imperial dictum of “divide and rule”, 13. It is to be remembered that the Council, in its resolution 554 (1984), declared the so-called new constitution not only contrary to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, but also null and void. The General Assembly, too, has rejected it as null and void in its resolution 39/2 of 28 September 1984. 14. As a result, the South African Government, which is constituted on the basis of that so-called new constitution, is not merely racist but illegal as well. This illegitimate and racist character of the r&gime has been further underlined by the popular uprising that followed the imposition of the racist constitution and the subsequent wave of violence and killings of defenceless people by the Fascist forces. The institutionalized racism and the illegal constitution are enforced and maintained today by State terrorism. 15. This situation cannot continue. It will either deteriorate further, engulfing not only South Africa but perhaps the entire region in a bloodbath, or it will have to get better, with the dismantling of the racist apparatus and the establishment of a non-racial and democratic society. Many South Africans, such as Bishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, are striving for the peaceful elimination of nparlheid from South Africa. We know that the course of action pursued by the Pretoria rtgime will inexorably lead to racial conflagration in southern Africa. 16. As far as Africa is concerned, the choice is not difficult. The people of South Africa, and indeed of the entire African continent, choose the path of peace. But regrettably, that path has all along been blocked by the racist rCgime, whose intransigence has been reinforced by the political, economic and other forms of collaboration extended to it by certain Western States. 17, We believe that for the path to peace to be a viable choice in this respect the international community must totally isolate the racist regime. Unless our repeated call for the imposition of comprehensive and mandatory sanctions against South Africa under Chapter VII of the Charter meets with a positive response from the Council, the people of South Africa will be left with no other choice than the intensification of the ongoing armed struggle. 18. The General Assembly in its resolution 3912 requested the Council to consider the serious situation in South Africa emanating from the imposition of the so-called new constitution and to take all necessary measures, in accordance with the Charter, to avert the 19. The Council now has before it a draft resolution 131167643 which we feel contains modest measures that are the minimum demanded by the exigencies of the situation and that could help defuse the tension currently prevailing in South Africa. Much as we believe in the inevitable triumph of good over evil, ofjustice over oppression, of freedom over subjugation, we cannot but remain optimistic and look forward to a positive result from the deliberations of this Council. I hope it will not let us down, 24. The situation in South Africa has always been volatile, with the policy of upurtheid lying at the very root of this instability. The chain of events beginning with the conception of the so-called new constitution and the sham referendum of 2 November 1983 have further exacerbated a state of acute tension. The outpouring of anger and frustration all over South Africa before, during and in the wake of the recent charade of elections must be seen as the inevitable reaction on the part of the oppressed masses fighting for human dignity-indeed, for their very survival. In characteristic fashion, the Pretoria regime has carried out the arbitrary arrest and detention without trial of leaders and activists of popular organizations; it has indulged ruthlessly in the wanton killing and maiming of defenceless demonstrators as well as of workers on strike; and it has imposed virtual martial-law conditions in attempts brutally to intimidate into submission the forces of change. It was against the background of these grave developments that the General Assembly urgently considered the issue in September 1984 and adopted resolution 3912 of 28 September, in which, inter nlia, it reiterated its rejection of the new constitution as null and void and condemned the continued massacre of the oppressed people, as well as the arbitrary arrests and detentions, It is against the same background and in the light of the call by the Assembly to the Council that we meet once again in urgent session here today.

At the outset, Sir, may I say how pleased my delegation is to see you preside over our deliberations. We have already benefited from the rich experience of meeting under your presidency during the month of August. While congratulating you, I look forward to fruitful and constructive action by the Council under your wise and impartial leadership. May I take this opportunity also to pay a tribute to Mr. Elleck Mashingaidze for his wise and skilful handling of the presidency of the Council during the month of September. 21. It was barely two months ago that the Council, under your presidency, Sir, convened [2548fh to 2551st meetings] to take stock of the grave situation created by the decision of the racist regime of South Africa to hold so-called elections to constitute segregated chambers for the Coloured people and the people of Asian origin. On that occasion, the debate on this crucial and emotive issue culminated in the adoption of resolution 554 (1984). By that resolution, the Council declared, inter niia, that the so-called new constitution was contrary to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, that the results of the referendum of 2 November 1983 were of no validity whatsoever and that the enforcement of the new constitution would further aggravate the already explosive situation prevailing inside apartheid South Africa. The resolution strongly rejected and declared as null and void the new constitution and the impending elections, as well as all insidious manoeuvres by the racist minority regime of South Africa further to entrench white minority rule and npcrrtheid. 25, The final communique adopted by the Meeting of Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Heads of Delegation of Non-Aligned Countries to the General Assembly at its thirty-ninth session, held in New York from 1 to 5 October 1984, stated that they “considered that the principal cause of instability and tension in the region was the South African racist regime’s continued entrenchment of apartheid internally through brutal repression, dispossession and exploitation, intimidation and constitutional fraud” [S/16773, annex, para. 181. 22. That clear and unequivocal message sent out by the Council was treated by Pretoria with its customary scorn and arrogance, Even while the debate in the Council was in progress [2548th meeting], the representative of South Africa saw fit to reject in advance any decision that the Council might take. Resolution 554 (1984) made no impact on South Africa, whose racist rulers proceeded with the sham elections as scheduled on 22 and 28 August 1984. The Ministers and Heads of Delegation expressed “deep indignation at the fact that, in blatant defiance of the world community and in the face of opposition by the overwhelming majority of the people of South Africa, the Pretoria regime has sought to impose a new racist ‘constitution’, under the guise of ‘constitutional reform’, in a bid to dispossess the Afri- 23. The impact of the Council’s resolution was not Lost on the oppressed people of South Africa. Indeed, the outcome of the Council’s deliberations provided “They commended the oppressed people of South Africa for their continuing heroism in the face of the repressive violence and oppression against them” [ibid., pat-as. 22 and 231. 26. I can do no better than reiterate to the Council this most recently stated position of the Movement of Non- AIigned Countries. 27. In its resolution 554 (1984) the Security Council solemnly declared that only the total eradication of aparrlzeid and the establishment of a non-racial democratic society based on majority rule, through the full and free exercise of universal adult suffrage by all the people in a united and unfragmented South Africa, could lead to a just and lasting solution of the explosive situation in South Africa. This is the profound truth that must inspire and guide the endeavours of the international community to restore the dignity and freedom that is the birthright of the people of South Africa and to bring peace and stability to that troubled region of the world. 28. The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries is firmly committed to achieving that objective. So, indeed, is the United Nations. If the rCgime in Pretoria stands in the way, it is within the power of the Council to overcome its defiance, 29. The delegations of Burkina Faso, Egypt, India, Malta, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru and Zimbabwe have submitted a draft resolution to the Council for its consideration [S/167921. We trust that it will obtain the support of all members of the Council. 30. We shall soon have the privilege of having with us in this chamber Bishop Desmond Tutu, on whom the Nobel Peace Prize was conferred just a few days ago. Let me conclude by recalling his words, spoken in Soweto only two days ago, and directed particularly at the white minority community. He said, as reported by The New York Times of 22 October: “If you think you can stop us, you are going to be stampeded, you are going to be overrun. We don’t want you to be overrun, We say: ‘Come join us. Join the. winning side.’ ” 3 1. The PRESIDENT (interpretation from French): The next speaker is the representative of South Africa. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 33. Once again the Council has been convened-irregulal’ly convened-to consider, in flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, matters which fall indisputably and solely within the sphere of South Africa’s domestic affairs. But then, this hardly comes as a surprise. The Security Council has previously violated its own statutes, most recently on 16 August 1984, 34. It speaks volumes that those States whose own record in human rights is more than dismal and which do not themselves trouble to pay even lip-service to article 21, paragraphs 1 and 3, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have the temerity to invoke that article against South Africa. Coming from those quarters, the provisions of the relevant article lose their meaning entirely. How dare these States presume to prescribe how another sovereign country shouId run its own affairs? 35. The South African Government rejects whatever decisions the Security Council may arrive at, now and in the future, when it purports to address the domestic affairs of South Africa. It is the Government of South Africa and the Government of South Africa alone which bears the responsibility for the safety and the weIl-being of all its citizens, and it will not be diverted from its duty to maintain law and order by any action of this Council or any other organ of the United Nations. 36. Let me refer briefly at this point to the house-tohouse searches conducted in the township of Sebokeng by the South African police this morning, which have, of course, already drawn the predictable hysterical and malicious comments from the usual sources at the United Nations. In point of fact, the actions of the South African police are aimed solely at protecting the inhabitants of the township of Seboken’g from criminal and other subversive elements who have perpetrated acts of intimidation, murder, arson and pillage against innocent and law-abiding citizens. Let me add that in their efforts to restore law and order our police have had the support and the co-operation of the majority of the local inhabitants. 37. That the representative of India, with his country’s abysmal record of discrimination and social inequality, should have had the audacity this afternoon to lecture South Africa on matters of constitutional justice is the height of hypocrisy, As for Ethiopia, its representative would have done better to look to the interests of his own people rather than make the preposterous allegations against my country which he made this afternoon. 38. My Government will continue to promote orderly and evolutionary change for the benefit of all South Africa’s peoples. It will not allow the irresponsible 39. As the records of the Council reflect, I have previously explained carefully what the purposes of the South African Government’s policies are. I have pointed to the progress that is being made towards reaching an accommodation in South Africa which will ensure a just and equitable dispensation for all South Africa’s peoples. 40, But it is quite clear to me that there is no desire in the United Nations to evaluate the socio-economic and political developments in South Africa fairly and objectively. On the contrary, we have learnt from experience that when South African affairs are discussed in violation of the Charter, as is the case today, we can expect no just, equitable or honest assessment of the South African situation. No one apparently dares, in the face of the vengeful and malicious hostility directed against my country, to speak up and to defend the very substantial progress which has been made in improving the lot of South Africa’s peoples in virtually every sphere of human endeavour. 41. It is nothing less than ludicrous that my country should be condemned by States Members of the Organization whose own people are indisputably worse off than South Africans of all colours-worse off in every aspect of life: in genuine constitutional rights, in judicial rights, in socio-economic development, ineducation, in health services and in the basic human needs, such as food and shelter. 42. But, as I have said, there is no point in my repeating here today what we have achieved and what we are achieving in South Africa, achievements of which we are justifiably proud. There is no point in my repeating those achievements, for this meeting is not interested in positive developments in South Africa. It has been called for one reason and for one reason only: to stoke further the fires of the anti-South African vendetta in the face of the South African Government’s achievements along the path of providing a fair dispensation for the political, economic and social aspirations of all the peoples of our multifaceted society. 43. Those who called this meeting are evidently alarmed because our efforts are bearing fruit. They will stop at nothing to mislead world opinion as to the true rnotives of the South African Government and they will leave no stone unturned to try to undermine the progress already achieved. But they will not succeed. They will fail. And they will fail because the efforts of the South African Government will increasingly receive the international recognition which they deserve. We will not be deterred. 44. With every meeting of this nature the Security Council falls into greater and greater disrepute. Unless 45. I have been asked by the South African Minister for Foreign Affairs to state here today that South Africa, as a regional Power in southern Africa, gives notice that it has no intention to capitulate, I must warn that, if the United Nations continues on its present course, South Africa will be forced to withdraw its contribution towards peace in southern Africa, Frankly, we have had enough. It is the States around us which will ultimately suffer, and it is the Organization which will have to bear the responsibility and which will have to accept the consequences. 46. Is it not time for the more responsible Members of the United Nations which have the real interests of this body at heart to put a stop to this sort of action? 47. To sum up, as far as the South African Government is concerned I have made our position very plain in the Council in the past and it is no different today. We reject the Council’s claim to concern itself with the internal affairs of the Republic of South Africa and we reject its presumption in purporting to prescribe how South Africa should conduct its domestic affairs.

The next speaker is the Chairman of the Special Committee against Apartheid, Mr. Joseph Garba. I invite him to take a piace at the Council table and to make his statement. 49. Mr, GARBA (Special Committee against Apartheid): Mr. President, I should like first of all to thank you and the other members of the Council for giving me this opportunity to make a brief statement on behalf of the Special Committee against Apartheid, and to express my great pleasure that you are presiding over this meeting devoted to the very grave situation in South Africa, in spite of the garbage to which we have just been treated. 50. As we meet today we know that the racist r6gime of South Africa sent no fewer than 7,000 men into the segregated African township of Sebokeng, near Johannesburg, in the middle of the night to intimidate the African people and to carry out house-to-house searches and arrest hundreds of Africans. In spite of what the South African representative said a few minutes ago, I am sure that those members who watched CBS News this morning saw exactly what happened. I did, and I was astounded. The press has also reported that that township of 120,000 people was transformed into a military camp, with white racist soldiers in combat gear, and with assault rifles and Alsatian dogs combing the township, and with helicopters circling overhead. Reporters were taken through the streets in armoured troop carriers and saw soldiers spaced 15 metres apart on all the streets of the township. 52. It is clear that the racist rBgime, in its desperation at being unable to curb the growing resistance against apartheid, has embarked on a war against the unarmed and defenceless black majority of that unhappy country. That operation, I may add, comes soon after the very large military manoeuvres staged by the Pretoria r6gime only last month. 53. The Azanian People’s Organization said that the military occupation of Sebokeng is a declaration of war. It also said: “The occupation shows that the South African Government has completely failed in its policies of apartheid. The revolutionary threat of which the Government talks has its roots in unrepresentative minority rule.” 54. A spokesman for the United Democratic Front (UDF) recalled its repeated warnings that South Africa was entering a state of civil war. Members of the Council may recall that six leaders of the UDF entered the British Consulate last month to draw the attention of the world to the explosive situation. 55, What’is happening in South Africa today is not merely one more struggle by the people for the redress of grievances and one more act of inhuman repression by that rCgime. 56. Ten years ago, when the Council considered the situation in South Africa, the racist rCgime solemnly promised to move away from all discrimination and the Western Powers used that declaration as a pretext to veto the exclusion of that rtgime from the United Nations. Since then, behind propaganda about “changes” and “reforms”, in orchestration with some Western Powers and interests, the racist regime has been trying to dispossess and denationalize the African majority through the so-called independence of bantustans and the forced removals of Africans from their lands and homes. Last year, behind a barrage of misleading propaganda, it enacted a so-called new constitution designed to divide the black people, denationalize the African majority and turn an African country into a white racist bastion. It went ahead with imposing that constitution last month despite categorical rejection by the great majority of the people and despite strong denunciations by the General Assembly and the Security Council. The black people in South Africa are now struggling not only for their homes, their livelihood and their elementary rights, but for their fatherland and, indeed, for the integrity of the continent of Africa. They are struggling for all the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. 58. The apartheid rBgime is sensitive to the attitudes of the major Western Powers-particularly the United States and the United Kingdom-and of the transnational corporations. It has understood the present attitudes of those Governments as a licence for repression. Indeed, it calculates that it should now resort to even more massive repression in order to suppress resistance so that transnational corporations can continue their operations and earn the “blood money” from the suffering of the black people. It hopes that it can create the calm of the grave so that the major Western Powers can again equivocate on action to eliminate apartheid. But history does not repeat itself. The oppressed people are mobilized more than ever and there is a prospect of an explosion. 59. I would like to appeal to the Council not to rest after adopting another resolution of condemnation or demands to the apartheid rCgime but to consider. measures under the Charter to enforce its resolutions. I would appeal particularly to the United States and the United Kingdom to listen for once to the appeals of the oppressed people of South Africa. To be engaged with the racists and to spurn the representatives of the great majority of the people is, to say the least, not a sign of statesmanship, not an act of friendship with Africa, not evidence of loyalty to the Charter. 60. Whether the apartheid rCgime will be allowed to run amok and precipitate a wider conflict, with the black majority forced to lay down lives for its dignity and survival, or the international community will resolve the situation depends, above all, on the United States and the United Kingdom. I hope history will not need to record that those two great countries have again failed to fulfil their duty, despite all our appeals, and have brought on a tragedy.

The next speaker is Bishop Desmond Tutu, to whom the Council has extended an invitation under rule 39 of the provisional rules of procedure. I invite him to take a place at the Council table. 62. On behalf of the Council, I should like to welcome Bishop Tutu. It is a particular honour for us to hear a 68. 3efore I came to this country in early September, to go on sabbatical, I visited one of the trouble-spots near Johannesburg. I went with members of the Executive Committee of the South African Council of Churches, which had met in emergency session after I had urged Mr. P. W. Botha to meet with church leaders to deai with a rapidly deteriorating situation. As a result of our peace initiative, we did get to meet with two cabinet ministers, demonstrating thereby our concern to carry out our call to be ministers of reconciliation and ambassadors of Christ. In this black township we met an old lady who told us that she was looking after her grandchildren and the children of neighbours whilst they were at work. On the day about which she was speaking, the police had been chasing black schoolchildren in that street, but the children had eluded the police, who then drove down the street past the old lady’s house. Her wards were playing in front of the house, in the yard. She was sitting in the kitchen at the back, when her daughter burst in, calling agitatedly for her. She rushed out into the living room. A grandson had fallen just inside the door, dead. The police had shot him in the back. He was six years old. Recently a baby, a few weeks old, became the first white casualty of the current uprisings. 63, I have pleasure in inviting Bishop Tutu to make a statement. 64. Bishop TUTU: Mr, President, thank you for your very kind words. I am very deeply humbled by the honour that has been bestowed on me, I thank you for the privilege of addressing this gathering. I thank you for this opportunity most warmly, on my own behalf and on behalf of millions in my land who have been rendered voiceless, the marginalized ones. 65. It is one of the ironies of our South African situation that I would be denied in my home country the chance of addressing its highest representative body; hut about that more a little later. 1 speak out of a full heart, for I am about to speak about a land that I love deeply and passionately; a beautiful land of rolling hills and gurgling streams, of clear starlit skies, of singing birds and gambolling lambs; a land God has richly endowed with the good things of the earth, a land rich in mineral deposits of nearly every kind; a land of vast open spaces, enough to accommodate all its inhabitants comfortably; a land capable of feeding itself and other lands on the beleaguered continent of Africa, a veritable bread-basket; a land that could contribute wonderfully to the material and spiritual development and prosperity of all Africa and indeed of the whole world. It is endowed with enough to satisfy the material and spiritual needs of all its peoples. 69. No death can leave us cold. Every death diminishes us. Every death is one too many. Those whom the black community has identified as collaborators with a system that oppresses them and denies them the most elementary human rights have met with cruel death, which we deplore as much as any others. They have rejected these people operating within the system, whom they have seen as lackies ahd stooges despite their titles of town councillors and so on, under an apparently new dispensation extending the right of local government to the blacks. 66. And so we would expect that such a land, veritably flowing with milk and honey, should be aland where peace and harmony and contentment reigned supreme. Alas, the opposite is the case. For my beloved country is wracked by division, by alienation, by animosity, by separation, by injustice, by avoidable pain and suffering, It is a deeply fragmented society, hagridden by fear and anxiety, covered by a pall of despondency and a sense of desperation, split up into hostile, warring factions. It is a highly volatile land, and its inhabitants sit on a powder-keg with a very short fuse indeed, ready to blow US all up into kingdom-come. There is endemic unrest, like a festering sore that will not heal until not just the symptoms are treated but the root causes are removed. 70. Over 100,000 black students are out of school, boycotting-as they did in 1976-what they and the black community perceive as an inferior education designed deliberately for inferiority. An already highly volatile situation has been ignited several times and, as a result, over 80 persons have died. There has been industrial unrest, with the first official strike by black miners taking place, not without its toll of fatalities among the blacks. 71. Some may be inclined to ask: But why should all this unrest be taking place just when the South Africa Government appears to have embarked on the road of reform, exemplified externally by the signing of the Nkomati accord [S/26451, annex4 and internally by the 67. South African society is deeply polarized. Nothing illustrates this more sharply than the events of 72. I wish to state here, as I have stated on other occasions, that Mr. P. W. Botha must be commended for his courage in declaring that the future of South Africa could no longer be determined by whites only. That was a very brave thing to do. The tragedy of South Africa is that something with such a considerable potential for resolving the burgeoning crisis of our land should have been vitiated by the exclusion of 73 per cent of the population, the overwhelming majority in the land. By no stretch of the imagination could that kind of constitution be considered to be democratic. The composition of the committees, in the ratio of four whites to two Coloureds to one Indian, demonstrates eloquently what most people had suspected all along: that it was intended to perpetuate the rule of a minority. The fact that the first qualification for membership of the chambers is racial says that this constitution was designed to entrench racism and ethnicity. The most obnoxious features of apartheid would remain untouched and unchanged. The Group Areas Act, the Population Registration Act, separate educational systems for the different race groups: all this and more would remain quite unchanged. 73. This constitution was seen by the mainline English-speaking churches and the official white opposition as disastrously inadequate, and they called for its rejection in the whites-only referendum last November. The call was not heeded. The blacks overwhelmingly rejected what they regarded as a sham, an instrument in the politics of exclusion, Various groups campaigned for a boycott of the Coloured and Indian elections-campaigned, I might add, against very great odds, by and large peacefully. As we know, the authorities responded with their usual iron-fist tactics, detaining most of the leaders of the UDF and other organizations that had organized the boycott-and we have some of them now holed up in the British Consulate in Durban, causing a diplomatic contretemps, 74. The current unrest was in very large measure triggered off by the reaction of the authorities to antielection demonstrations in August. The farcical overall turn-out of only about 20 per cent says more eloquently than anything else that the Indians and the Coloureds have refused to be co-opted as the junior partners of apartheid-the phrase used by Allan Boesak, the founding father of the UDF and President of the World Alhance of Reformed Churches. 7.5. But there is little freedom in this land of plenty. There is little freedom to disagree with the determinations of the authorities. There is large-scale unemployment because of the drought and the recession that has hit most of the world’s economy. And it is at such a time that the authorities have increased the prices of various 76. So the unrest is continuing, in a kind of war of attrition, with the casualties not being large enough at any one time to shock the world sufficiently for it to want to take action against the system that is the root cause of all this agony. We have warned consistently that unrest will be endemic in South Africa until its root cause is removed. And the root cause is apartheid -a vicious, immoral and totally evil and unchristian system. 77. People will refer to the Nkomati accord, and we will say that we are glad for the cessation of hostilities anywhere in the world. But we will ask: Why is detente by the South African Government only for export? Why is State aggression reserved for the black civilian population? The news today is that the army has cordoned off Sebokeng, a black township near Sharpeville, and 400 or so persons have been arrested, including the ex-moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa and Father Geoff Moselane, an Anglican priest. 78. As blacks we often and often run the gauntlet of roadblocks on roads leading into our townships, and these have been manned by the army in what are actually described as routine police operations. When you use the army in this fashion, who is the enemy? 79. The authorities have not stopped stripping blacks of their South African citizenship. Here I am, 53 years old, a bishop in the church, some would say reasonably responsible; I travel on a document that says of my nationality that it is “undeterminable at present”. The South African Government is turning us into aliens in the land of our birth. It continues unabated with its vicious policy of forced population removals. It is threatening to remove the people of Kwa Ngema. It treats carelessly the women in the KTC squatter camp near Cape Town whose flimsy plastic coverings are destroyed every day by the authorities-and the heinous crime of those women is that they want to be with their husbands, with the fathers of their children. 80. White South Africans are not demons; they are ordinary human beings, scared human beings, many of them; who would not be, if they were outnumbered five to one? Through this lofty body I wish to appeal to my white fellow South Africans to share in building a new society, for blacks are not intent on driving whites into the sea but on claiming only their rightful place in the sun in the land of their birth. 81. We deplore all forms of violence, the violence of an oppressive and unjust society and the violence of those seeking to overthrow that society, for we believe that violence is not the answer to the crisis of our land. 83. We are committed to work for justice, for peace and for reconciliation. We ask you, please help us; urge the South African authorities to go to the conference table with the authentic representatives of all sections of our community. 90. The inspiring words we just heard from Bishop Desmond Tutu will no doubt encourage not only the people of South Africa but also all the front-line States and, indeed, all of us. I wish the representative of South Africa had remained in the chamber to listen’ and heed that appeal from Bishop Tutu, but i wonder if, even had he been present here, he would have heeded that appeal. I have grave doubts, because from the record that we know of the regime of South Africa, that appeal would have fallen on deaf ears. 84. I appeal to the Council to act. I appeal in the name of the ordinary, the little people of South Africa. I appeal in the name of the squatters in Crossroads and in the KTC camp. I appeal on behalf of the father who has to live in a single-sex hostel as a migrant worker, separated from his family for 11 months of the year. I appeal on behalf of the students who have rejected this travesty of education made available only for blacks. I appeal on behalf of those who are banned arbitrarily, who are banished, who are detained without trial, those imprisoned because they have had a vision of this new South Africa. 1 appeal on behalf of those who have been exiled from their homes.

The representative of Ethiopia has asked to make a statement, and I now call upon him.

I shall be very brief. The representative of the Fascist Pretoria regime has done his best to hoodwink the international community again with the usual garbage for which the representatives of Pretoria are well known. I shall not allow myself to stoop to his level by replying in kind. After all, it is very difficult for one to insult an entity which is the personification of the worst possible insult one can mention. 85. I say we will be free, and we ask you: Help us, that this freedom come for all of us in South Africa, black and white, but that it come with the least possible violence, that it come peacefully, that it come soon.

Some entirely uncalledfor remarks and unfounded allegations made by the representative of the apartheid regime of South Africa have compelled me to speak. 93. The whole world knows that the apartheid regime is the most odious system, and the international community has declared it a crime against humanity. We only hope for the day that this noble chamber will be rid of such obnoxious representatives of an equally abhorrent regime. 87. The record of my country in preserving and protecting human rights within the framework of democracy is well known, and the last thing I would have 94. The people of Africa, including those of Ethiopia, may be poor, but they remain optimistic, not orily as to their own bright future, but also for the downfall of apartheid. expected to hear in this chamber are unfounded charges against India from the representative of a rkgime based on and nourished by institutionalized racial discrimination and deliberate suppression of fundamental human, political and civil rights.

It is my understanding that the Council is ready to 88. Intemperate and unwarranted attacks against my country, India, and other non-aligned countries, or against Ethiopia and the African countries on whose behalf the representative of Ethiopia has spoken, would be of no avail to the representative of the minority regime of South Africa in defending what is patently indefensible and justifying what the civilized world has already rejected as a mockery of every value and principle that mankind cherishes and upholds. proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it [S/16791]. Unless I hear any objection, I shall put the draft resolution to the vote. It was so decided,

I call on the representative of the Netherlands, who wishes to make a statement before the vote. 89. The representative of South Africa has again entered the plea of domestic jurisdiction. Long years ago the United Nations declared and decided that, where apartheid was concerned, there could be no shelter taken behind the Charter of the United Nations. We have also heard from the representative of South Africa renewed threats against the sovereign States in the region of southern Africa. He should know that neither the people of South Africa nor the front-line States will 97. Mr. van der STOEL (Netherlands): Two months ago, on the eve of the elections for representatives of South Africa’s Coloured people and people of Asian descent, the Council adopted resolution 554 (1984), thereby rejecting the’ new South African constitution and affirming that only the total eradication of apartheid can bring about a just and lasting sdlution of the situation in South Africa. After the elections had been held and the new constitution had come into effect, the 98. Unfortunately, things have hardly improved since then. In several black townships rioting continues to erupt time and again, causing an ever-increasing number of casualties. Perhaps this upsurge of violence cannot exclusively be attributed to South Africa’s new constitutional arrangements. Other factors, such as a rent increase and general dissatisfaction with living conditions in the black townships, have certainly compounded an already explosive situation. Under these circumstances one spark is sufficient to provoke the pent-up frustrations and anger of the oppressed black majority into outbursts of destruction. Indeed, it must be feared that as long as the root causes of these events are not addressed in a decisive manner the flames of violence will continue to erupt periodically from the smouldering hatred created by a repressive system. 99. As I have explained on previous occasions, the Netherlands Government is of the opinion that South Africa’s new constitution, based on proposals which were endorsed by an exclusively white referendum last year, utterly fails to meet the grievances and legitimate aspirations of the majority of the population. 100. Moreover, the new constitutional framework has clearly been designed to impose severe limits on the influence which the Coloured and Asian Chambers of the tricameral Parliament can bring to bear on the Governmetit’s decision-making process, and thus to ensure continued white dominance. The low voter turnout at the elections for these Chambers demonstrated that the non-white population of South Africa did not view the new constitutional set-up as a move away from the present-day racial policies but, rather, as an attempt to bolster the system of apartheid by introducing some cosmetic changes, without touching its hard core. The international community, through its rejection of the new constitution, voiced its concern at these developments, which demonstrate the South African Government’s blindness to the real causes of the growing tensions in that dountry, causes which sooner or later it will have to address. 101. The Netherlands has consistently adopted the position that the ills of South Africa’s deeply troubled society can be cured only by a policy of meaningful steps leading towards fundamental reform. For such steps to be meaningful they must include a scheme for eventual power-sharing by all segments of South Africa’s population and address the all-important issue of the disfranchisement of the black majority. With this objective in mind, the Netherlands has pursued a policy of increasing the pressure on South Africa, both nationally and through concerted international action, In this connection I recall that the Netherlands has repeatedly 102. My Government is deeply distressed by the wave of violence, deaths and arrests of leading figures involved in the boycott of the elections which has swept over South Africa in recent months. The Netherlands strongly supported the Declaration on South Africa by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the 10 States members of the European Economic Community of 11 September 1984 [S/26741, annex], in which the Ten voiced their concern at the growing deterioration of the situation in South Africa and announced that they would seek the immediate release of those detained without charge. The Ten repeated their concern at these developments in their statement on the occasion of the Day of Solidarity with South African Political Prisoners. 103. Against this sombre backdrop of mounting confrontation, the news that one of South Africa’s foremost opponents of apartheid and advocates of peaceful change, Bishop Desmond Tutu, the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is all the more gratifying. We listened with great interest to what he said today, and we are very pleased at this felicitous and timely award to a man whose stubborn pursuit of peaceful change has embodied the hopes of those who, in spite of the intransigence of the South African Government, hold to their belief that a solution to South Africa’s problems must be found through dialogue and reconciliation, 104. My delegation agrees with the overall thrust of the draft resolution before us [S/16791] and accordingly it will vote in favour of it. The Netherlands strongly condemns South Africa’s apartheid system, and we share the view expressed in the draft resolution that its complete eradication and replacement by a free, nonracial and democratic society, in which all the people of the country, irrespective of race or colour, will enjoy equal rights, is imperative. We agree with those who drafted the draft resolution that this should include the demands enumerated in operative paragraph 6. The bankruptcy of South Africa’s homelands policy is becoming more visible every day. Not only has the creation of these entities failed to elicit even the slightest measure of recognition by the international community, but the inability of the bantustans to SUStain their population has demonstrated that the grand apartheid scheme is an impracticable illusion. Similarly, the forced removals carried out by the South African authorities have kept the unfavourable attention of world opinion focused on the inherent brutality of apartheid. 105. However, the Netherlands cannot agree with some of the language used in the draft resolution. I wish to recall that my country, although it condemns the

I shall now put to the vote the draft resolution contained in document S/16791. A vote was taken by show of hands. In favour: 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, Zimbabwe, Against: None. Abstaining: United States of America. The draft resolution was adopted by 14 votes to none, with 1 ubstention [resolution 556 (1984)].

I shall now call on those representatives who wish to make statements after the vote.

To those who would prefer to see apartheid dismantled without further suffering and self-determination accorded to ah the people of South Africa without additional bloodshed, the tragic and violent events of the past few weeks have been profoundly disheartening. The warnings that were sounded as far back as 25, 35 and more years ago, and have since been repeated with ever increasing intensity, have not been heeded. 109. The United Kingdom voted in favour of resolution 556 (1984) as a further sign that the international community does not believe the problems of South Africa can or should be resolved by repression, by the denial of civil and political rights or by violence. Our vote marks no change in the position we adopted in our votes on Council resolution 554 (1984) and General Assembly resolutions 38/11 and 39/2. It does not lie within the competence of any organ of the United Nations to reject or declare null and void the constitution of a Member State. The seriousness of the situation in South Africa speaks for itself: we regret, and regard as counter-productive, the exaggerated language used in several parts of this resolution, including the term “massacre”, to describe that situation. In this respect, ‘we regard the expression “crime against humanity” as one of abhorrence rather than a technical legal description and we do not interpret any part of this resolution as failing within the terms of Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

Sir, I should like to begin by offering our congratulations to you in this public session on your assumption of the presidency for this month and to express my Government’s satisfaction and pleasure at your conduct of the affairs of the Council during the past weeks. We have already had occasion to congratulate your predecessor, the representative of Zimbabwe, on his skilful and adept management of the Council’s affairs. 112. In abstaining today the United States interposed no obstacle to the resolution adopted by the Council, though some excesses of language prevented us from joining the Council in voting affirmatively. My Government abhors apartheid. We have expressed this abhorrence on many occasions. We have also repeatedly expressed our conviction that denial of equal rights to all South African citizens is wrong in itself and a source of great unrest and disturbance in South African society. My Government is distressed and concerned by the violence that has swept South Africa recently. We fully support the demands expressed in the resolution for equal rights, majority rule and respect for minority rights for all South African citizens of all colours and races. 113. Indeed, the United States Government strongly supports the demand for equal rights, freedom, equal opportunity, self-government and self-determination for all citizens of all countries. We do not believe that the problems of South Africa will be resolved until all South African citizens enjoy their full rights as citizens in a self-governing society, The United States Government’s priorities in southern Africa remain the search for peace and concrete progress towards our common goals in South Africa and the region as a whole. 114. May I add that this meeting has given us the opportunity-and a very welcome opportunity indeed-to hear the eloquent views of a great exponent of human rights, We always listen to Bishop Tutu with attention. Our respect for him has been expressed many 115. Mr. de La BARRE de NANTEUIL (France) [interpretation porn French]: We have some reservations regarding certain terms in the first preambular paragraph and in paragraph 1, particularly concerning the description of apartheid as a “crime against humanity”. However, we voted in favour of the resolution submitted to us today, as we voted in favour of Council resolution 554 (1984) last August and, more recently, on 28 September, of General Assembly resolution 3912. 116. I wish to recall what was said by the Minister for foreign Affairs of France just a few days ago, when he paid a special visit to New York to address the Special Committee against Apartheid. He stated that the attitude of South Africa was “morally unacceptable, politically dangerous and intellectually scandalous”. 117. Neither constitutional reforms that leave intact the system of apartheid, nor the policy of forced re- 119. Until that legitimate right is recognized, France will continue to denounce unequivocally and unreservedly the apartheid regime and the consequences and practices that stem from it.

I call on the representative of Ethiopia.

The hour is late, and I wish only to thank the Council, on behalf of the Group of African States of the United Nations, for its commendable decision, which we in the African Group believe to be a positive step towards the elimination of the abhorrent system of apartheid. 122. It must be clear, however, that apartheid remains an inhuman system. It remains a threat to international peace and security. The Council, therefore, is duty-bound to take every measure commensurate with its responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations and to remain seized of the situation in South Africa.

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