JUNE 17, 1991
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This year's observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Struggling People of South Africa takes place during a period of intense political activity in South Africa which at times has appeared promising and at other times has seemed to be dangerously disappointing.
The Special Committee, one year ago on this day, characterized the political developments in South Africa as auspicious, particularly the efforts made by the authorities and some of the representatives of the black majority to reach a negotiated settlement. Since then, and despite further efforts and promises, the process now appears to be at risk. Unfulfilled or partially fulfilled promises and escalating violence in South Africa are without doubt the main threats to this process.
South Africa is today at a crossroad. We behold a moment of great political fragility in that country. It is a time when the hope and the desire to move forward to a new and better South Africa has never been greater, and yet, there seems to be a concerted effort by certain sectors of that fragmented society to sow dissension...
If the majority of the people of South Africa ever needed international solidarity, it is now more than ever. The need to restore confidence and trust, the urgent necessity to enhance political tolerance, both among all the races and among the black majority, has become imperative. So is the need to guarantee that South Africa does not regress into a repressive past from which it is just barely beginning to emerge.
Members of the international community have an obligation to ensure that the ongoing peace process in South Africa is not in anyway jeopardized. It must give continued support to those efforts aimed at the eradication of apartheid and the adoption of a new constitution that guarantees fundamental human rights protected in a Bill of Rights, and which fosters equality, social justice, democracy and the independence of the judiciary. And it must provide appropriate assistance to anti-apartheid organizations so that South Africa may reach these goals as soon as possible.
The new political dispensation in South Africa is one that will need to be defined by the South African people themselves. But the task will unquestionably be easier with our support and assistance. The role of the international community is not to remain impartial. Rather, the international community must assist those who oppose apartheid and whose brothers and sisters in the thousands have sacrificed their lives over decades to obtain freedom, equality and progress for all in their country.
There is no doubt that our collective pressure has been and will continue to be fundamental to achieving these goals. On this day of solidarity, I find it necessary to reiterate, that while all encouragement must be given to South Africans in their endeavours to negotiate a settlement of their conflict, such encouragement does not, at this stage, justify the removal of the international community's political leverage, that is, pressure, which helped orchestrate the negotiations in the first instance. Unilateral or collective lifting of existing measures, for whatever intent and purpose, impedes, in our opinion, more than it assists the negotiation process. At the same time, the international community should increase the assistance to the victims of apartheid and seriously consider appropriate ways to help address the grave socio-economic inequalities which are the most threatening legacies of apartheid.
I therefore again call upon the international community to remain resolute in its commitment to the eradication of apartheid, and to do so with all the considerable means at its disposal.