South African History Online

New York, 22 June 1990

Your Excellency, Ambassador Ibrahim Gamban, Permanent Representative of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria and Chairman of the Sp ecial Committee against
Apartheid;
Your Excellency, Mr. Perez de Cuellar, Secretary-General of the
United Nations;
Your Excellencies, Permanent Representatives;
Heads of the
Observer Missions;
Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Comrades:

We feel especially honoured and privileged to have the possibility today to
stand at this particular place, to speak to all of you, who represent the
peoples of the world. We are most grateful to you, Mr. Chairman. The Special
Committee against Apartheid, the Secretary-General and all the member States of
this Organisation for making it possible for us to be here.

The tragedy is that what has created the need for this gathering and made it
seem natural that we must gather in this historic meeting place, is the fact of
the continuing commission of a crime against humanity. How much better it would
have been if we were meeting to celebrate a victory in hand, a dream fulfilled,
the triumph of justice over a tyrannical past, the realisation of the vision
enshrined in the UN charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It will forever remain an indelible blight on human history that the
apartheid crime ever occurred. Future generations will surely ask--what error
was made that this system established itself in the wake of the adoption of a
Universal Declaration on Human Rights.24

It will forever remain an accusation and a challenge to all men and women of
conscience that it took as long as it has, before all of us stood up to say
enough is enough. Future generations will surely enquire--what error was made
that this system established itself in the aftermath of the trials at
Nuremburg?

These questions will arise because when this august body, the United Nations.
first discussed the South African question in l946, it was discussing the issue
of racism. They will be posed because the spur to the establishment of this
Organisation was the determination of all humanity never again to permit racist
theory and practice to dragoon the world into the deathly clutches of war and
genocide.

And yet, for all that, a racist tyranny established itself in our country. As
they knew would happen, who refused to treat this matter as a quaint historical
abberation, this tyranny has claimed its own conclave of victims. It has
established its own brutal worth by the number of children it has killed and the
orphans , the widows and widowers it can claim as its unique creation.

And still it lives on, provoking strange and monstrous debates about the
means that its victims are obliged to use to rid themselves of this intolerable
scourge, eliciting arguments from those who choose not to act, that to do
nothing must be accepted as the very essence of civilised opposition to
tyranny.

We hold it as an inviolable principle that racism must be opposed by all the
means that humanity has at its disposal. Wherever it occurs, it has the
potential to result in a systematic and comprehensive denial of human rights to
those who are

discriminated against. This is because all racism is inherently a challenge
to human rights, because it denies the view that every human being is a person
of equal worth with any other, because it treats entire peoples as
sub-human.

This is why it was correct to characterise the apartheid system as a crime
against humanity and appropriate that the international community should decide
that it should be suppressed and punishment meted out against its perpetrators.
We pay tribute to this Organisation and its member States for this and other
decisions and actions it took to expunge this crime.

Mr. Chairman:

We also take this opportunity to salute the Special Committee against
Apartheid which has been and is a very important instrument in our struggle
against the iniquitous and oppressive policies of the South African Government.
We salute also the States that make up its membership who have been unrelenting
in their resolve to contribute everything they could to ensure that the world
was mobilised to act against the apartheid system.

In this connection also, Sir, allow us to express a well-deserved tribute to
your country, Nigeria, which you so ably represent, as did your predecessor in
this important office, His Excellency Major-General Joseph Garba, current
President of the General Assembly, and under whose leadership the United
Nations, declaration on South Africa was adopted by consensus at the sixteenth
special session of the General Assembly last December.

That declaration will go down in history as one of the most important
documents in the struggle of the international community against apartheid. The
fact that it was adopted by consensus was itself a telling blow against the
apartheid system and a vital statement underlining the unity of the world
community on the South African question and its resolution.

No relaxation of sanctions

We look forward to the report that the distinguished Secretary-General of the
United Nations will submit dealing with the question of the implementation of
the declaration in South Africa. This report will also be important to the
extent that it will provide a basis for further decisions by the United Nations
regarding future action on the question of apartheid.

What must however be clear is that the apartheid system remains in place.
None of the principles laid down in the declaration has been implemented, to
provide what the declaration characterised as an internationally acceptable
solution to the South African question. Similarly, the profound and irreversible
changes which the declaration visualised have not yet occurred.

The conclusion from these observations would seem clear to us. It is that
nothing which has happened in South Africa calls for a revision of the positions
that this Organisation has taken in its struggle against apartheid. We.
therefore, strongly urge that there should be no relaxation of existing
measures. The sanctions that have been imposed by the United Nations and by
individual governments should remain in place.

We also urge that the United Nations should do everything in its power to
maintain the unity it achieved when it adopted the declaration on South Africa
last December. We therefore hope that all member States will continue to act in
concert so as not to create any situation in which those who are opposed to
change in our country find encouragement to resist change, because some
countries would have destroyed the consensus that has been achieved. In this
regard, we take this opportunity once more to call on the countries of the
European Community, which are holding a summit meeting in a few days, time
themselves to remain faithful to the purposes of the declaration to whose
elaboration they were party and for which they voted.

Present situation in South Africa

At the initiative of the ANC, the process has begun which could lead to a
just political settlement in our country. At our well known meeting in Cape
Town, at the beginning of last month, we agreed with the South African
Government on the removal of the obstacles to negotiations which are identified
in the declaration. The process of implementing that agreement has started. But
as this distinguished gathering knows, a lot still remains to be done before we
can say that a climate conducive to negotiations has been created.

We therefore still have some distance to travel before we undertake the
further steps outlined in the declaration, leading to negotiations for the
adoption of anew, democratic constitution. The fact that a good beginning was
made in Cape Town should not lead us to conclude that further progress is
assured or that we will not have to confront major obstacles in future.

In this regard, we would like to reiterate what we have said before, that we
believe that President de Klerk and his colleagues in the leadership of the
ruling party are people of integrity. We are of the view that they will abide by
decisions that are arrived at in the course of our discussions and negotiations.
This, in itself, is an important victory of our common struggle because it is
that struggle which has made the cost of maintaining the apartheid system too
high, and helped to convince the ruling group in our country that change can no
longer be resisted.

It is, however, also true that there are many among our white compatriots who
are still committed to the maintenance of the evil system of white minority
domination. Some are opposed because of their ideological adherence to racism.
Others are resisting because they fear democratic majority rule. Some of these
are armed and are to be found within the army and the police.

Outside of these state agencies, other whites are working at a feverish pace
to establish para-military groups whose stated arm is the physical liquidation
of the ANC, its leadership and membership, as well as other persons or
formations which these right-wing terrorist groups see as a threat to the
continued existence of the system of white minority domination. We cannot afford
to underestimate the threat that these defenders of a brutal and continuing
reality pose to the whole process of working towards a just political
settlement.

Commitment of the ANC

The ANC is determined to do everything in its power to ensure speedy movement
forward towards the peaceful abolition of the apartheid system. To this end. we
are engaged in many initiatives within South Africa, armed at bringing into the
process of negotiations all the people and the representative political
formations of our country. We have to overcome the mistrust that exists on both
sides and reinforce the understanding that the only victory we should all seek
is the victory of the people as a whole, and not the victory of one party over
another.

It is obvious that none of these processes can be easy. We are however
inspired by the experience of the people of Namibia and our comrades-in-arms of
SWAPO, who also overcame the divisions and the mistrust generated by the
apartheid system, carried out a peaceful political process within a relatively
short period of time and are today a proud nation of independent people. We take
this opportunity to salute the representatives of the Namibian people who are
present in this hall and acknowledge the debt we owe them for the contribution
they have made to our own liberation.

We also salute the frontline states of Southern Africa and the rest of our
continent for their own enormous contribution to the struggle against apartheid,
which has brought us to the point today when we can say that the victory of the
struggle for a united, democratic and non-racial South Africa is within our
grasp.

Tribute is also due to the non-aligned countries and movement and the peoples
of the rest of the world for their own sterling efforts in pursuit of the common
cause. What we must once more urge, is that all these forces should maintain
their unity around the perspectives contained in the UN and Harare declarations
on South Africa. How fast we progress towards liberation will depend on how
successful we are in our efforts to sustain that united resolve.

This is for us a moving moment because we know that as we stand here we are
among friends and people of conscience. We know this because we know what you
did over the decades to secure my release and the release of other South African
political prisoners from Pretoria's dungeons. We thank you most sincerely for
this, especially because you have thus given us the opportunity to join hands
with you in the search for a speedy solution to the enormous problems facing our
country, our region and continent and humanity as a whole.

We know also that you harbour the hope that we will not relent or falter in
the pursuit of that common vision which should result in the transformation of
South Africa into a country of democracy, justice and peace. Standing before the
nations of the world, we make that commitment, strengthened by the knowledge
that you will fight on side by side with us, until victory is achieved.

We also take this opportunity to extend warm greetings to all others who
fight for their liberation and their human rights, including the peoples of
Palestine and western Sahara. We commend their struggles to you, convinced that
we are all moved by the fact that freedom is indivisible, convinced that the
denial of the rights of one diminish the freedom of the other.

We thank you for your kind invitation to us to address this august gathering
and for the opportunity it has given us to pay homage to you all, to the
Secretary General, the President of the General Assembly, the Special Committee
against Apartheid and the United Nations itself, for the work that has been done
to end the apartheid crime against humanity.

The distance we still have to travel is not long. Let us travel it together.
Let us, by our joint actions, vindicate the purposes for which this Organisation
was established and where its charter and the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights will become part of the body of Law on which will be based the political
and social order of a new South Africa. Our common victory is assured.

Thank you.