6 November 19861
The struggling people of South Africa have always attached a great deal of importance to the General Assembly debate on apartheid. Our appreciation and gratitude to all the friends, allies and supporters of the oppressed cannot be overemphasized. While the vacant South African seat before us is proof of what has already been achieved,2 it must also serve as a reminder of what remains to be done.
It is important to note at this juncture that our people have seldom had such high hopes for unity of action by this body as they do this year. They draw strength from the strong, constant and unequivocal condemnation that has in the past decades come from countless eminent persons speaking from this rostrum. Now that, in response to the call by their vanguard movement, the African National Congress, our people have gone a long way to rendering South Africa ungovernable and apartheid unworkable, thereby inspiring the world-wide momentum for action, they rightly expect the United Nations to take appropriate measures immediately in order to help hasten the downfall of the Pretoria regime.
It is for that reason that, in congratulating Mr. Choudhury on his unanimous election to the high office of the presidency, I must also express our confidence that, under his guidance and thanks to his country's and his own personal commitment, our deliberations will be crowned with success.3 We also take this opportunity to congratulate his predecessor, Ambassador de Pinies of Spain, on the way in which he carried out his onerous task during his term of office.
Allow me to address our most heartfelt condolences to our sister people of the People's Republic of Mozambique, to their vanguard, the FRELIMO Workers' Party, and its Government on the tragic and untimely death of that illustrious son of Africa and great freedom fighter, President Samora Machel. The depth of his commitment and dedication to the genuine and total liberation of our continent and his unswerving support for the struggle against apartheid had earned him world-wide admiration and respect. Loyal to the FRELIMO-ANC revolutionary solidarity forged in the crucible of the common struggle that he lived and died for, the African National Congress solemnly pledges to spare no effort in intensifying the fight towards the realization of his ideal - genuine national independence, peace and social progress in South Africa and southern Africa.
In reaffirming our solidarity with the people of Mozambique who, with inflexible determination have picked up President Machel's fallen spear, I extend fraternal congratulations to President Joachim Chissano on his assumption of the leadership role in the embattled People's Republic of Mozambique. We hasten to add our voice in calling for urgent all-round support to help Mozambique in the face of Pretoria's stepped-up war of destabilization.
The mysterious aircraft crash on 19 October which resulted in the death of President Samora Machel and many top officials of the Government of Mozambique was preceded by Pretoria's open threats based on unfounded claims that the recent operations by the ANC were launched from Mozambique. The ANC reiterates its position, accusing racist South Africa of the assassination of President Machel, regardless whether this act of war was the work of the regime's agents or its surrogates. We share the view held by many that the existing circumstantial evidence points to the regime's direct or indirect involvement, and until proved innocent it is seen by the people of southern Africa as being guilty of a heinous crime. Pretoria's handling of this tragic incident and the threats it has been making against the leaders of the front-line States have served only to increase the world public's suspicions. We are confident that, in the same way as the international community rejected Pretoria's explanation that Steve Biko had died of brain injuries allegedly incurred when he banged his head against the wall in his prison cell, it will reject the regime's claim that the crash was due to an alleged storm recorded only in Pretoria.
Whatever the so-called official cause turns out to be, the conclusion and verdict of the people of southern Africa is influenced by what they have experienced in the region - Pretoria's armed attacks and mass murder, as well as assassinations and threats against their leaders for daring to stand up and be counted against the apartheid system. They see the tragic event of 19 October as part of Pretoria's war of destabilization of the front-line States. They are convinced that the regime's criminal record and its continued threats serve as the most eloquent proof of the international community's conviction that there can be no peace, stability and security in southern Africa until the apartheid regime is overthrown and replaced by a non-racial democratic society.
It is in this context that the regime's intransigence was once more vividly illustrated when, a few days before its meeting with the representatives of the Eminent Persons Group who had met the ANC in Lusaka two days earlier and had just arrived in Cape Town, it launched unprovoked military raids against Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. It alleged that these raids were aimed at so-called military installations of the ANC in those countries - needless to say, these criminal acts of aggression were in fact carried out against an office complex, civilian residences and, most tellingly, a refugee camp run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
It will be recalled that even as the world was justly condemning that dastardly act, P.W. Botha was announcing that it represented only the first instalment, with much more to follow, and that the regime had until that time used only a small fraction of its much-vaunted military might. In the same vein he declared that his regime's objective was to destroy the ANC, even if that entailed cross-border raids.
The international community viewed that as an unequivocal rejection by the Pretoria regime of any initiative aimed at a negotiated settlement towards meaningful change in South Africa. It was therefore only logical that the Eminent Persons Group concluded that the only way to avert the looming inter-racial blood bath in South Africa and the region as a whole was to impose sanctions against racist South Africa without further delay.
It will be recalled that, ignoring the findings and conclusions of the Eminent Persons Group, Sir Geoffrey Howe proceeded to Cape Town and southern Africa in an attempt to succeed where the Group had failed. Predictably, and by way of vindication of the correctness and accuracy of the Group's conclusions, his mission failed. It is clear therefore that any attempt emanating from anywhere and however well-intentioned either to duplicate or to revive the initiatives of the Eminent Persons Group or those of Sir Geoffrey Howe can amount only to buying additional time for apartheid’s murderous campaign against the people of southern Africa.
In this regard, if there is any truth in the unconfirmed reports that the Kohl regime is contemplating yet another attempt to persuade the Pretoria racist regime to co-operate in the eradication of apartheid, we call for the abandonment of the very thought of such an initiative, for to proceed with it would amount to simply purchasing further time for apartheid, and perpetuate neo-Nazi apartheid crimes, thereby endorsing the Pretoria racist regime's prescription of a southern African holocaust.
The unparalleled all-round escalation of our mass united actions in the armed political struggle for liberation has seized the initiative from the Pretoria racist regime and translated it into the embryo of people's power. It has forced the collapse of the ideology of apartheid, thrown the regime's political programme into disarray and plunged the racist regime itself ever deeper into irreversible political and economic crisis. Thus today the Pretoria racist regime is more vulnerable than ever to principled and concerted international action.
However, the Pretoria racist regime has not shown even the remotest inclination to renounce its warlike intentions. It has reimposed the state of emergency, further muzzling the press, effecting mass arbitrary arrests and detaining without trial over 20,000men, women and children, especially trade unionists, and killing thousands more South African patriots in its prisons as well as in the streets of South Africa. It continues with its forced removals as is witnessed by the cruel fate that befell the people of Oukasie township. It has resorted to the use of so-called reorientation centres in an effort to brainwash ex-detainees into submission. Even in the face of intense popular resistance, it persists with its programme of bantustanization.
The racist regime has conspicuously failed to suppress the emergence and growth of manifestations of people's power, such as street and township committees and people's defence committees as well as the people's tribunals, created by the people across the country in response to the ANC directives. It has instead responded to the failure of its repressive measures by further tightening the screws of repression and by further intensifying the reign of terror. To this end, the regime is currently maintaining a virtual state of siege or encirclement of numerous black townships. It has declared the largest non-violent and hitherto unbanned anti-apartheid front - the United Democratic Front - an "affected organisation”, a sure sign that the United Democratic Front, like the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) before it, will soon be banned. This is of course part of the regime's campaign to muzzle the voices of those who would otherwise speak for the people and points once more to the fact that the regime is not interested in negotiations except on its own conditions and with its puppets.
The whole world, if it sincerely wants to help avert disaster in southern Africa, can no longer afford to procrastinate. It must respond to Pretoria’s militaristic domestic repression and external aggression with comprehensive and mandatory sanctions against the apartheid regime without further delay. Any piecemeal and limited sanctions can only facilitate the regime's plans to circumvent sanctions and to impose counter-sanctions against neighbouring States.
There are already several packages of limited sanctions available, such as those of the Commonwealth, Scandinavia, the European Economic Community, and the United States. They must be rendered uniform and expanded towards comprehensiveness and made mandatory in order to ensure that their application is simultaneous and is therefore more effective.
We seize this opportunity to commend the anti-apartheid movement in the Western countries for its relentless campaign in favour of sanctions. The important advances in this direction, best exemplified by Denmark's decision to impose a total trade boycott of racist South African goods and the moves in the same direction currently being taken by the Nordic countries and by Australia, Canada and others, mark the beginning of what must lead to the total isolation of the apartheid regime.
We also commend the people of the United States for their efforts against constructive engagement which have culminated in the adoption by Congress of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986. We urge them to intensify their campaign to expunge those clauses in that Act which constitute a campaign to isolate the ANC and the South African liberation struggle. Despite the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act and the announcement of withdrawals from South Africa by companies like General Motors, I.B.M., Honeywell, Coca-Cola and others, we urge the American people to exercise vigilance against limited victories and to continue their disinvestment campaign until it results in a total United States boycott of apartheid South Africa.
The campaign to isolate totally the apartheid regime must of necessity be accompanied by a very substantial increase in comprehensive assistance to the front-line States as well as to other African States in southern Africa.
It should also go hand in hand with a further intensification of all-around political, diplomatic, financial and material assistance to our liberation struggle, led by the African National Congress, and to our heroic sister people of Namibia, led by the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO).
Finally, we wish to reaffirm our unflinching solidarity with all peoples and their national liberation movements or other leadership structures engaged in struggles against oppression, war and want and for a free, humane, peaceful and abundant future for themselves and for all of mankind. The struggle continues. Victory is certain.
1. United Nations document A/41/PV.60