The General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 1982 as the International Year of Mobilization for Sanctions against South Africa at the very short notice of only two weeks.
In taking this exceptional step the General Assembly and the States Members of the United Nations underscored the need for a sense of urgency in promoting collective action by Governments, organizations and individuals in dealing with the grave situation created by the policies and actions of the Pretoria regime, particularly its inhuman oppression of the great majority of the people of South Africa and its escalating acts of terrorism, subversion, destabilization and aggression against independent African States.
For any objective person who has followed developments in southern Africa in the past year, the need for urgency and for collective action is clear. I need only mention the massive and continuing aggression against the People's Republic of Angola; the grave threat to the security of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho; and the attempt to deprive another 1.5 million Africans of their citizenship through the proclamation of the so-called "independence" of the Ciskei.
The Pretoria regime has become even more brazen in its defiance of the United Nations. It had the audacity to write to the President of the Security Council that the statement of the Council denouncing the so-called independence of the Ciskei was "reprehensible".
Apartheid, the scourge of humanity, has become an intolerable menace. Not only our sense of morality but also our concern for peace and our loyalty to the United Nations call for decisive action to destroy apartheid.
I would therefore venture to express the hope that even those Governments which did not support the proclamation of the International Year, especially some members of the Security Council, will soon be persuaded to support the purposes of the International Year. We will not fail to exert our efforts towards that end.
In the three decades since the General Assembly began consideration of the problem of apartheid - and especially since the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 1761 (XVII) on 6 November 1962, which established this Special Committee - the United Nations has taken and encouraged a wide range of measures to demonstrate its support for the legitimate struggle of the oppressed people of South Africa and to promote the elimination of apartheid.
Many countries and many individuals have made commendable sacrifices in response to the appeals of the United Nations. There has hardly been another issue on which the international community has demonstrated such collective will as on apartheid.
Although the Security Council has been unable to take mandatory action except for the arms embargo - because of the stubborn resistance of certain Powers, there has been significant progress since 1962; many countries, including a number of Western countries, have come to accept the imperative need for sanctions against South Africa.
The International Conference on Sanctions against South Africa, held in Paris in May 1981, demonstrated the overwhelming support for sanctions by States from all regions of the world and diverse ideological persuasions. It underlined the need for the mobilization of committed Governments, organizations and individuals to press for mandatory and comprehensive sanctions against South Africa. It has also encouraged unilateral measures by individual States and groups of States pending action by the Security Council. The Paris Conference has pointed out that the friends of freedom in South Africa constitute the overwhelming majority of humanity. They have the power through united effort to secure effective international action.
We must constantly confront the Powers which continue to resist action against South Africa and their peoples with the choice between credibility and hypocrisy, and with the choice between friendship with a doomed system of apartheid and friendship with most of humanity.
If individual countries can announce a series of sanctions against other countries without any consideration by the Security Council there is no justification for such countries rejecting demands for sanctions against the Pretoria regime, a regime which has been universally condemned as a criminal and an aggressor, nor for their claim that sanctions are not feasible or effective. But the time has come when those who refuse to isolate the apartheid regime will find themselves isolated.
When the Security Council decided by its resolution 418 (1977) of 4 November 1977 to institute a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa we hoped that the decision would be the beginning of an effective programme of sanctions against South Africa. As a minimum the arms embargo should have reduced and ultimately eliminated the capacity of the Pretoria regime to embark on aggression against independent States. But, regrettably, the Pretoria regime has been able, with the connivance of certain Powers and transnational corporations, to expand its military arsenal and escalate its criminal acts of aggression. The Security Council has failed to act on the recommendation of its own Committee to strengthen and reinforce the arms embargo, and there has been hardly any monitoring of the embargo. There has been little action to prevent and frustrate the efforts of the apartheid regime to acquire a nuclear-weapon capability.
We must therefore give the utmost priority to promoting the reinforcement and effective monitoring of the arms embargo as an indispensable step for averting a wider conflict and defending the authority of the United Nations. I am sure that I am expressing the views of all members of the Special Committee in declaring that the Committee will press for such action and offer its full co-operation to the Security Council for this purpose.
We have repeatedly emphasized the crucial importance of an oil embargo
as an indispensable complement to the arms embargo and an effective means
for the elimination of apartheid. The decisions of almost all oil-exporting countries to impose an oil embargo against South Africa have been a most significant development in international action against apartheid. An effective and universal oil embargo against South Africa is now feasible.
We must therefore make every effort to press for a mandatory decision by the Security Council and promote the effective monitoring of the national embargoes in order to prevent the illicit supply of oil and oil products to South Africa by international oil and tanker companies and unscrupulous dealers.
I should like in this connexion to express particular appreciation to the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries and all its members for their decision to tighten the implementation of their embargoes. The Special Committee will give the utmost priority to consultations with oil-exporting countries and others to promote the monitoring of the oil embargo.
The Special Committee has also decided to redouble its efforts on the sports boycott of South Africa, to promote trade union action for sanctions against South Africa, and to mobilize writers, artists, entertainers and other personalities in the campaign against apartheid.
We will continue to press all countries which have not yet done so to terminate exchanges of military attaches and personnel with South Africa, to stop the promotion of trade with South Africa, to end loans to South Africa, to prohibit emigration to South Africa, and to discourage tourist visits to South Africa. We will publicize the facts to enable an outraged public opinion to call for governmental action in all nations concerned. We will follow closely the developments - such as the recent increase in importation of South African coal by several Western countries and Japan - and call for action.
We will redouble our efforts in the discharge of the mandate from the General Assembly and in the fulfilment of our duty to the freedom fighters who are risking their lives so that the principles of the Charter of the United Nations will be respected in South Africa.
We appeal to all Governments and all organizations to co-operate with us in this effort.
I must, in conclusion, emphasize that neither the liberation movement nor the Special Committee has ever asked anyone to choose between black and white. We totally reject that choice and affirm our commitment to enable all the people of South Africa - irrespective of race, colour or creed - to determine their destiny.
We have not advocated sanctions as a means of punishment or revenge, even against the oppressors in South Africa, but as a means of supporting the legitimate struggle of the oppressed people, who will themselves be obliged to make great sacrifices.
We declare that there can be no constructive engagement with the crime of apartheid.
We proclaim that the international community cannot and will not accept racist domination in South Africa, however camouflaged. Apartheid cannot be reformed. Our objective is the total destruction of apartheid, not the mere mitigation or streamlining of that abhorrent system.
We shall persevere in this noble task, at the behest of the General Assembly, with confidence that we shall secure ever greater support from world public opinion.
1.Statement at the meeting of the Special Committee to launch the International Year. Source: United Nations document A/AC.115/PV.488