NOTE ABOUT THE EDITOR
E.S. Reddy, a former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations,
has devoted most of his life, including 35 years as a member of the United
Nations Secretariat from 1949 to 1985, to promoting international action
for the liberation of southern Africa. He was Principal Secretary of the
UN Special Committee against Apartheid, and Director of the UN Centre against
Apartheid, the UN Trust Fund for South Africa and the UN Educational and
Training Programme for Southern Africans. He undertook numerous missions
for the United Nations to promote action by governments and organizations
in support of African freedom movements. He organized many international
conferences and seminars against apartheid and colonialism in southern
Africa, including the World Conference for Action against Apartheid (Lagos,
August 1977) and the International Conference for Sanctions against South
Africa (Paris, 1981), of which he was Secretary-General. He was an invited
guest at the Conference of the Socialist International on Southern Africa
(Arusha, September 1984) and at the Swedish People`s Parliament against
Apartheid (Stockholm, February 1986 where Mr. Palme delivered his last
address.
He visited Sweden on many occasions for consultations with public leaders
and officials on international action against apartheid. He met Mr. Palme
on many occasions in Sweden and at international conferences.
A few weeks before his assassination, Mr. Palme, then Prime Minister of
Sweden, wrote in a letter to him:
"Your contributions to the work of the United Nations against
apartheid have been formidable. Your devoted work has been highly appreciated
by many of us here in Sweden. I am confident that you continue to play
a major role as a source of knowledge and inspiration to the international
movement against apartheid."
Since retiring from the United Nations in 1985, Mr. Reddy has been Senior
Fellow of the United Nations Institute for Training Research, and member
of the Council of Trustees of the International Defence and Aid Fund for
Southern Africa. He is associated with a number of organizations concerned
with liberation of southern Africa and has frequently acted as consultant
to United Nations bodies and governments.
Born in Andhra Pradesh, India, Mr. Reddy was educated at the University
of Madras, and then at the New York and Columbia Universities in New York.
He is the author of Apartheid, the United Nations and the International
Community (Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1986), Struggle for
Freedom in Southern Africa (Mainstream Publications, New Delhi, 1987),
Oliver Tambo and the Struggle for Liberation of South Africa (Sterling
Publishers and Namedia Foundation, New Delhi, 1987), and numerous other
pamphlets, papers and articles. He has edited a three-volume collection
of speeches by V.K. Krishna Menon at the United Nations which is being
published by Vikas Publishing House.
THE RT. REVD. TREVOR HUDDLESTON C.R.
Archbishop Huddleston, the outstanding campaigner against apartheid for
four decades, lived in South Africa as a priest from 1943 to 1956 and he
earned the respect and affection of the black people by his courageous
opposition to racial discrimination. The African National Congress bestowed
on him, at the historic Congress of the People in 1955, its highest decoration
Isitwalandwe Separankoe. Forced to leave South Africa in 1956, he
has tirelessly worked to arouse the conscience of the people of Britain
and other countries to the evil of apartheid and to promote sanctions and
boycotts against racist South Africa. The United Nations awarded him a
gold medal in 1982 in recognition of his great contribution to the struggle
against apartheid. He is now President of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement
and Chairman of the Council of Trustees of the International Defence and
Aid Fund for Southern Africa.