Urgent appeals made for mandatory sanctions against South Africa; Assembly adopts 13 texts on apartheid, Namibia.

Urgent appeals made for mandatory sanctions against South Africa 

Assembly adopts 13 texts on apartheid, Namibia

Urgent appeals to the Security Council to impose comprehensive mandatory sanctions against South Africa have been made again by the General Assembly following separate debates in the plenary on two related items - South Africa's policy of apartheid (16-20 November) and the question of Namibia (4-6 November).

Five resolutions were adopted on 6 November concerning Namibia, including an 85-paragraph omnibus text. Eight more texts relating to apartheid were approved on 20 November, touching on such subjects as collaboration by certain States with South Africa; the situation of the front-line States; and support for national liberation movements. Other topics related to a mandatory oil embargo against South Africa, application of strictly monitored measures against Pretoria, implementation of the United Nations plan for Namibian independence, political prisoners, and the work of the United Nations Council for Namibia -- the legal Administering Authority for the Territory.

The United States said it continued to use carefully targeted political, diplomatic and economic pressures to achieve a peaceful transition in South Africa. International efforts to ravage the South African economy were not a solution to apartheid. World-wide sanctions simply did not work.

In explaining its vote against sanctions, the United Kingdom said the most effective way to help South Africans to dismantle apartheid was not to impose punitive economic and other measures in an attempt to isolate the country.

World-wide sense of urgency . . .

In its report (A/42/22) to the Assembly, the Special Committee against Apartheid said there was a world-wide sense of urgency to replace the apartheid system by a democratic and non-racial order in an unfragmented South Africa, without further bloodshed. The situation in and around South Africa had deteriorated rapdily because of the policy of apartheid and South Africa's mounting reign of domestic terror, as well as its acts of aggression and destabilization against regional countries. Pretoria had also recently imposed Draconian measures on the media.

Enforceable and strictly monitored sanctions would help create conditions necessary for a peaceful, just and lasting solution to the conflict in South Africa. South Africa's dependence on foreign technology, loans and trade was critical to considering further measures against Pretoria.

In a special report on Israel's relations with South Africa the Committee noted that Israel had last September imposed sanctions against South Africa, but the measures were ambivalent with numerous loopholes and exceptions. The secret technical, intelligence and research co-operation between the arms industries of Israel and South Africa was strategically important.

The 11-member intergovernmental group to monitor the supply and shipping of oil and petroleum products to South Africa, established by the Assembly in 1986, reported that the oil embargo recommended by the Assembly in 1977 had led to the expansion of an illegal oil business with Pretoria. While small companies and middlemen were reported as being the embargo's main violators, the role of major transnational oil companies which owned subsidiaries in South Africa -- such as British Petroleum (BP), Caltex, Mobil, Shell and Total -- could not be underestimated. Both BP and Shell were reported to be actively involved in oil imports to South Africa. Tanker companies, through a series of chartering schemes, were attempting to conceal their role in violating the embargo.

Chairman Tom Eric Vraalsen of Norway said the Group was determined to help bring about a total halt in the supply of oil and petroleum products to South Africa if apartheid were not eradicated. Pretoria must choose to eradicate apartheid through peaceful means or economic isolation through a choking of its arteries.

Other reports: Council for Namibia President Peter Zuze of Zambia reported (A/42/24) on intensified activities to mobilize concerted international action to speedily terminate South Africa's illegal occupation of Namibia. Certain Western and other countries that continued to collaborate with Pretoria shared some of the responsibility for that occupation. South Africa had intensified its acts of destabilization of the front-line and other States and continued to resort to inhuman measures to forcibly suppress legitimate aspirations of Namibians.

Action on Apartheid

The Assembly urgently asked the Security Council to immediately act under Chapter VII of the Charter to apply comprehensive and mandatory sanctions against South Africa. The United Kingdom, the United States and others opposed to such sanctions were urged to cease their opposition. The Security Council was urged to strengthen its 1977 mandatory arms embargo.

The Assembly urged States, pending the imposition of comprehensive and mandatory sanctions, to adopt legislative and/or comparable measures to impose effective sanctions against South Africa. They were encouraged to ratify the 1985 International Convention against Apartheid in Sports.

The Security Council was urged to impose a mandatory embargo on the supply and shipping of oil and petroleum products to South Africa as well as the supply of equipment and technology to its oil industry and coal liquefaction projects.

The Assembly demanded that South Africa immediately lift the state of emergency; abrogate discriminatory laws and lift bans on all organizations and individuals, as well as end restrictions on and censorship of news media; and grant freedom of association and full trade union rights to all workers of South Africa.

The Assembly also demanded that Pretoria initiate without preconditions a political dialogue with genuine leaders of the majority population with a view to eradicating apartheid without delay and establishing a representative government; eradicate the bantustan structures; and immediately withdraw its troops from southern Angola and end the destabilization of front-line and other States.

It asked the release unconditionally of all political prisoners, trade union leaders, restrictees and detainees, particularly children. Pretoria should allow the return of all political exiles; end the policy of bantustanization and forced population removals; and eliminate apartheid laws. An appeal was made for increased assistance to South Africans and their national liberation movements.

The Assembly also asked Israel to desist from and terminate forthwith all forms of collaboration with South Africa. (Israel has reiterated its "total and unflinching" condemnation of the apartheid policy and South Africa's regime of racial discrimination.)

Texts on Namibia

Attempts by Pretoria and its allies to establish a "linkage" between Namibian independence and extraneous and irrelevant issues, particularly the presence of Cuban forces in Angola, were rejected. Also rejected was the policy of "constructive engagement" with South Africa.

The Assembly condemned the continuing collaboration between Pretoria and certain Western countries in a number of fields.

The international community was urged to urgently increase assistance, including military, to the front-line States. A call was made for increased support, including military, to the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO). The armed struggle of Namibians under SWAPO's leadership was supported.

The Security Council was asked to declare categorically that Walvis Bay was an integral part of Namibia. Dismay was expressed at the Council's failure to discharge effectively its responsibilities for the maintenance of peace and security in southern Africa, owing to the vetoes of two of its Western permanent members. The Council was urged to ensure that the United Nations plan for Namibian independence, embodied in Council resolution 435 (1978), be fully implemented.

Western permanent members of the Security Council were asked to support the imposition of its enforcement measures in order to ensure compliance by South Africa with Council resolutions. The Assembly decided to consider in 1988, necessary action if the Council was unable to compel South Africa to co-operate in the implementation of resolution 435 by 29 September 1988.

The Assembly supported the Council for Namibia's efforts, both as the legal administering authority for Namibia and as a United Nations policy-making organ. The Council for Namibia was asked to intensify the international campaign in favour of Namibia's cause. The Council was also asked to focus its activities towards greater mobilization in Western States, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany and Japan.

The Assembly decided that the United Nations Fund for Namibia would be the primary source of development assistance to Namibians, and allocated to the Fund, as a temporary measure, $1.5 million from the regular United Nations budget.

Council asks plan's implementation

The Council for Namibia, at its first ministerial-level meeting in 20 years, on 20 October, called for "unconditional and speedy" implementation of the UN plan for the independence of Namibia. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar was asked to consult with Security Council members, particularly the permanent members, to secure a firm commitment to that end. As the three Western permanent Security Council members had initiated that plan, the Council for Namibia urged them to take into account their particular responsibility to ensure its "unimpeded implementation".

Photo: A funeral ceremony for a black South African becomes a protest.