YouSaid · the spoken record

Legwaila

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS LEGWAILA

lines on the record: 74
first: 1981-09-24
most recent: 1994-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“In implementing these ideals, it is necessary to bear in mind the need for equitable geographical representation, which emphasizes increased permanent membership for developing countries, particularly in Africa." We are due to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of this Organization. The United Nations has amply vindicated its existence. It survived the distractions and ravages of the cold war with its sense of purpose relatively intact. Botswana’s fidelity to the purposes and principles of the Organization’s Charter remains unstinting. It is therefore our cherished hope that the next century will usher in an environment in which the Organization will thrive in the pursuit of these purposes and principles.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“With regard to reform of the Security Council, I can do no better than quote the African Common Position Paper on United Nations Reforms: "The expansion and equitable representation in the Security Council has become imperative because of the need to democratize and make the Council more 32 efficient and transparent. In this era, the democracy that is being preached at national level should pervade the international system. It is thus necessary to review both the composition and the decision-making process of the Council, in line with the above principles, and taking into account the relationship between the Council and the General Assembly.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Botswana is encouraged by the ongoing process of reform and revitalization of the United Nations in the economic, social and related fields. The adoption of General Assembly resolution 48/162 has brought about unprecedented changes in the working of the United Nations system, at the level both of the Economic and Social Council and of the Second Committee of the General Assembly; we welcome all of this. It is our hope that these changes will bring about efficiency and effectiveness in addressing the needs and concerns of developing countries at the policy-making and operational levels.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Our country has entered the most challenging period since independence. Africa as a whole is engaged, in one form or another, in economic and political reforms that need the support and cooperation of the donor community and the multilateral financial institutions. Poverty is an underlying factor of underdevelopment that many African countries have to contend with today. Regrettably, implementation of the structural adjustment programme, welcome as it is in the restructuring of African economies, has in many instances worsened the social conditions of the poor in the short term. This is why Botswana looks forward to the forthcoming World Summit on Social Development, where we will have the opportunity to address these anomalies in a very serious manner.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Between 1970 and 1992 Botswana achieved an annual real growth rate of 12 per cent per year in gross domestic product. After being viewed as one of the world’s poorest countries, with a per capita income estimated at $70, Botswana suddenly became Africa’s success story, a success born out of a stable, democratic political system and a free-market economy. Our democratic system is now so entrenched that it has become our nation’s second nature. The happy result is that Botswana is free from any ethnic or tribal conflict. Regrettably, we have not been spared the wrath of the world recession and have thus experienced dramatic declines in growth rates. Our economic growth, heavily influenced by the development of minerals, particularly diamonds, has experienced adverse effects arising from the fall in the price of diamonds.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The arbitrary division of the island of Cyprus remains unrepaired. We urge the parties to reintensify their search for a mutually acceptable dispensation that will make possible the reunification of the island and its people. The same applies to the two Koreas. The people of the North and South are Koreans in every sense and soon they must realize that, like the people of South Africa, who have just triumphed over racial division, they too can triumph if they try harder, over ideological division. We live in the age of dialogue and negotiation, the age of reconciliation and forgiveness. No one will be excused for refusing to negotiate an end to a disagreement. Over the past two decades my country has experienced an unprecedented period of economic growth.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The Middle East has broken out of the straitjacket of no war- no peace. We hail the agreement clinched last year between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the rapprochement between Israel and Jordan symbolized by the signing of the Washington Declaration to bring to an end the state of war between the two countries, and we urge that no stone be left unturned in the quest for a comprehensive solution to the problems of that very important area of the world. Unfortunately, the sound of the drums of war in the Gulf area are piercing our ears once again. We hope that this time the parties involved in the war dance are merely trying to exorcise the demons of the politics of brinkmanship, without any intention whatsoever of bringing world peace to the brink and beyond.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“We hope that in the Caribbean, the people of Haiti will take advantage of the massive assistance they are receiving from the international community to normalize the situation in their country. They have a golden opportunity to do so and to resume the journey they started three years ago towards a democratic future. There may be no second - or third - chance. 31 Botswana believes that the time has come for Cuba and the United States to negotiate an amicable end to their protracted estrangement. Intractable problems all over the world, are being resolved through negotiations, and we do not believe that the cold war between Cuba and the United States is beyond resolution by negotiation. Botswana values the friendship of both countries and cherishes the hope that soon there will be peace and reconciliation between the two neighbours.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Beyond the African continent, the agony of Bosnia and Herzegovina has continued to outrage the conscience of mankind. The senseless bloodletting in that tormented region of Europe remains stubbornly impervious to solution. Peace plan after peace plan has failed to impress one side or the other, and the result is that the patience of the international community, which has to deploy enormous resources to maintain a massive peace-keeping presence in the area, is being tested beyond endurance. The question we ask is: How can the perpetrators of that cruel conflict ever make sense out of it? We appeal to them to stop the carnage. Meanwhile, we urge the International Tribunal set up to bring to justice the authors and perpetrators of that barbarous war to spare no effort in doing so.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The Rwandese nation cannot reconcile so long as chunks of it are languishing and dying in refugee camps in foreign lands. Rwanda cannot endure any more cycles of civil war and genocidal massacres. The tens or hundreds of thousands of refugees encamped at present in the neighbouring countries must be helped to return to their homeland lest out of the frustrations of exile in their squalid refugee camps they ignite another cycle of genocide. On the perennial question of Western Sahara, Botswana shares the view that it is taking far too long to hold a referendum in the Territory to allow the Sahraoui people to decide their future. The Territory cannot and must not be allowed to mark time forever in a limbo of uncertainty as if the fulfillment of the aspirations of its people can be delayed until their final submission.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Is the newly intensified fighting which has caused another exodus of refugees to neighbouring countries and wasted more innocent lives the way to thank the monitoring Group of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOMOG) and the international community for the cost in lives and material they have suffered and incurred in an attempt to save Liberia from self-destruction? The first world is already showing signs of extreme weariness about the cost of peace-keeping. Soon even ECOMOG may run out of the means and the will to persist in its seemingly impossible mission to save Liberia from itself. And as long as Liberia is in the state in which it is there is the certainty that peace in the region at large will be and remain imperilled. Although the carnage has ended in Rwanda, the tragedy that has befallen its people has not.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“We understand this frustration and exasperation, and yet we would find it absolutely unconscionable for the United Nations simply to uproot itself from Somalia when it is abundantly clear that such a course of action would have catastrophic consequences. The decision to withdraw the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM II) must be carefully weighed against the obvious consequences of the vacuum it will create. There is also Liberia, whose agony clearly knows no limit. The madness that is being displayed by the warring factions there is surely beyond comprehension.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“We remain hopeful, however, that the marathon talks in Lusaka, capital of the Republic of Zambia, will produce an agreement for the parties to implement without reservation. The Somali tragedy remains intractable. The presence in the fractured country of 18,000 United Nations peace- keeping troops, including Botswanans, has not made much of a difference in the restoration of peace and tranquillity to the Somali people. Now we are faced with a threat to abandon the country to its fate. The international community has every reason to be frustrated and exasperated by what looks like a total absence of any intention on the part of the warring Somali factions to reconcile and give their nation a chance to drag itself out of the quagmire of civil war.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Yet we remain troubled and pained by the fact that not all is well in other parts of the African continent by any stretch of the imagination. Our south western sister Republic of Angola has never had a moment of tranquillity, peace or stability ever since it attained its independence 19 years ago. Blood has continued to flow in that tortured country in ever-increasing profusion, even as we are told the Lusaka talks are on the verge of a successful conclusion. This is the precious blood of innocent Angolans shed needlessly because the multiparty democracy demanded by UNITA and its supporters was won three years ago, only to be subjected to another round of brutal civil war.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Through the Southern African Development Community’s economic fraternity, mechanisms are being developed to promote regional approaches to the protection of human rights and the safeguarding of the democratic milieu that the region has laboured so hard and shed so much blood to bring about. As an example, I would mention the case of Lesotho, about which members will have heard. Recently, when democracy was placed in danger there, the region, through the good offices of three Presidents of southern African countries - Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana - sprang into action to engage the Basotho leaders in a dialogue, which happily culminated in the cherished Lesotho democracy being saved without a shot 30 being fired. It was regional conflict-resolution and diplomacy at their very best.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Southern Africa, the erstwhile cockpit of conflict, has suddenly found salvation and begun the process of reconstruction and regional cooperation and integration. Since peace and stability are universal prerequisites for orderly economic and social development, both of which we have begun to savour in southern Africa, there is every reason why we should be excited about the future of our region. With the holding of multiparty elections in the sister Republic of Mozambique, the process of democratization in the region will have come closer than ever before to culmination. Increasingly, the region is being guided in the ordering of its political affairs by a set of common democratic values.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Financial resources to sustain these commitments may soon dry up, if indeed they are available, in tandem with the drying up of support for peace-keeping generally, particularly among the big contributors. The past year has been a year of mixed blessings for Africa. The continent won a major victory with the liberation of South Africa from the shackles of apartheid and racism. Three-and-a-half centuries of white minority domination have ended, and the construction of a new non-racial society has begun in earnest in South Africa. We heartily congratulate all the people of South Africa, in their racial and cultural diversity, on the wisdom and courage they have shown in coming to terms with their common destiny. We welcome the new South Africa into our midst with open arms.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Unfortunately, the energies and resources that the international community could be deploying to help buttress and nurture emerging democracies have to be expended on the search for solutions to a multiplicity of intractable civil wars. Tragically, some of these civil wars show no sign of amenability to solutions. They have become perennial; so is the United Nations mission to mitigate them. This places the United Nations in a terrible dilemma, both moral and material. Unfortunately, there is very little choice for our Organization. It would be absolutely unconscionable to abandon a Bosnia or a Somalia to its own wretched devices. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the United Nations peacekeeping commitments are threatening to overwhelm the Organization’s capacities.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“Let me also pay a deserved tribute to our dear brother, last year’s President, Ambassador Samuel Insanally, whose tenure of office was most effective, productive and creative. We wish him a happy, hard-earned retirement from the service of our General Assembly. The new world order remains a misnomer. Misery and wretchedness are the order of the day in many parts of the world. The post-cold war era was to be the era of democratization, peace and development, so we hoped. Yes, democratization has taken root in many parts of the world, including our own continent, Africa. That is to be celebrated, and should be celebrated.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“The Government and people of Botswana salute your elevation to the Presidency of the forty-ninth session of the Assembly. Your election by acclamation is a fitting tribute not only to your personal distinction but also to the African continent, on whose soil you were bred and nurtured. It goes without saying, therefore, that the confidence we repose in you as you guide our deliberations is beyond measure. The Secretary-General’s legendary tenacity of purpose at the helm of our Organization has continued to serve us very well indeed. He remains undaunted by the complexities of the problems he faces as the world’s chief diplomat and peacemaker in an era marred by the continuing absence of peace. We salute him and his staff of dedicated international civil servants.”
1994-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 49 (1994)
“So I reaffirm my country’s unshakeable faith in the Organization, and I say this with the confidence and hope that it can still use all its potential to respond decisively to the needs of our troubled world in order to remain faithful to its principles and attain its objectives.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“The steps and remedies that were agreed there roust be implemented without delay. The United Nations may not have been able, in the 4 2 years of its existence, to satisfy all our expectations in the struggle for the creation of a better world for mankind. Indeed, the agenda before us clearly shows that we still live in a dangerous world - a far cry from the kind of world envisaged by the founding fathers of the Organization. But we are not bereft of hope. The United Nations is the best human edifice ever built. Our imperfect world would have been far worse without it.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“We have found his work invaluable and would urge increased support for him in his difficult task. The terrorism perpetrated by individuals, groups of individuals and States which have lost their sense of humanity is a universal scourge. My country is pleased to note that there is now a concerted international effort to combat this scourge in all its aspects or branches, including State terrorism. States enjoy no exemption, regardless of their size and the power at their disposal. All forms of terrorism are evil and must be fought without let. Drugs also continue to wreak havoc in the world. The young generation of today is a hallucinated generation. We note with satisfaction the outcome of the International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, held in Vienna this past summer.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“The independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-alignment of that harmless and peaceful island are very important, at least to the continuance of the precarious existence of small countries of the third world. The OAU has finally adopted a declaration of its own on the protection of human rights. This is as it should be, for as newly independent countries, some of which are literally still trying to find their feet or bearings, we have a lot of human rights to protect, because the process of growing up following decades of colonialism is not always a peaceful one. None the less, we deeply believe that no human life should be devalued on any basis whatsoever, be it ideological, religious, ethnic or racial. We pay homage to the High Commissioner for Refugees for his selfless dedication to the cause of refugees.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“The image and credibility of our Organization are not enhanced by the very painful fact that Cyprus remains an occupied country despite the adoption of Security Council resolution 365 (1974) and General Assembly resolution 3212 (XXIX), indeed, the indications are that the grip of occupation is tightening. That is very sad, foe Cyprus is a non-aligned country with impeccable bona fides, a Commonwealth member of no mean import and a third-world country whose only crime apparently is to have been placed by geography and fate, like my own country, near a powerful neighbour. Cyprus must not be allowed to perish under the heavy boot of military occupation. The United Nations must prevent this from happening.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“The holding of the International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development in New York during the period 24 August to 11 September this year was long, long overdue. Although its results were not anything dramatic, the Conference nevertheless explored many worth-while possibilities that deserve serious attention in the future. The fact that there is an organic relationship between disarmament and development can no longer be in dispute. Resolutions of the General Assembly and Security Council must not be taken lightly or dismissed with the kind of contempt to which we have grown accustomed.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“Botswana's position has not changed on the question of the reunification of Korea, because the factors that tutored us into adopting that position have not changed. We remain adamant in our insistence that: first, the two Koreas must be unified peacefully; secondly, there must be dialogue between the two sides to resolve common problems; and, thirdly, there should be no foreign interference in such a dialogue. On the question of war and peace, Botswana welcomes the ongoing negotiations between the super-Powers aimed at reducing their nuclear arsenals. We have no doubt that any significant reduction upon which they can agree on this score will be welcomed by all nations. We urge them to persevere in this constructive endeavour.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“The agreement signed by the leaders of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in Guatemala City in August has the potential to end fratricidal strife in Central America, if given a chance. It is our fervent hope that outsiders will not find other excuses to sabotage these efforts for their own selfish ends. Let the people of Central America lead the way to their own destiny. Let nobody tell them how they must run their own affairs. We similarly invest our hopes in dialogue in the search for solutions to the problem of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) . The United Nations has always been ready to assist Argentina and the United Kingdom to resolve their differences at the conference table. The sooner they co-operate in this crucial endeavour, the better for peace and tranquillity in the South Atlantic.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“That the people of that war-torn African country have never known peace since they attained their independence is a painful fact known to us all. This is why we attach a great deal of importance to the current efforts of the OAU to bring an end to the conflict. And we ask all strangers to that purely African conflict to stay away from it - very far away from it - and to refrain from inflaming the passions of the belligerents and making business out of the fratricidal horrors between those sister African countries, Chad and Libya, Looking at the Latin American region, we are encouraged that after a period of inactivity on the diplomatic front concrete steps have been taken to bring peace to the region.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“But as long as foreign troops remain in those two countries we remain convinced that the best way the United Nations can approach the problem is to ask that those troops be withdrawn. The problem of Western Sahara continues to defy solution. One party to the conflict has just completed the building of the so-called defence wall. This move can only create more stumbling-blocks in the search for peace in the Maghreb. We reiterate our conviction that the good offices of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations remain the only logical means whereby the parties to the conflict can engage in a free and fair dialogue aimed at allowing the process of self-determination to take place in the territory. The question of Chad is important to us.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“We appeal to the two sides to implement the recent Security Council resolution 598 (1987) , calling for a cease-fire and an end to these hostilities. On the questions of Kampuchea and Afghanistan, we remain unshakeable. We remain convinced that withdrawal of foreign troops in each case would constitute a first important step to normalizing the political life of these two war-torn countries. Meanwhile, my country will continue to encourage international efforts whose aims are to find lasting negotiated solutions to both questions. We have noted in both cases that, indeed, efforts of one form or another have been made to try and promote solutions through dialogue.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“The Jewish people who have suffered for so long should not be the ones to show so much insensitivity to the plight of others, especially people with an equally sound and legitimate historical claim to the land of Palestine. The long-talked-about international conference on the Middle East must be convened with the full participation of all parties to the conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), because we believe that therein lies the hope for peace in the area. I speak as one who comes from a war-torn region, but I still find the continuation of the Gulf war incomprehensible, for this is a war that really benefits no one, especially the two protagonists. The destruction it has wreaked on the economies and lives of the peoples of the two countries is horrendous and unspeakable.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“There appears to be no willingness on the part of Israel to countenance the establishment of a homeland for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel continues to spread Jewish settlements in the territories it captured in war. Meanwhile, Palestinians remain in squalid refugee camps all over the Middle East, with no respite in sight to their misery. Botswana does not accept the supposed incompatibility of the existence of the State of Israel within internationally recognized borders alongside an independent homeland for the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza. We believe that that is the only sure basis for durable peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours. My Government does not accept the policy of might is right, and we will never accept it.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“In this endeavour they have sought and received the assistance of the international community, it is what we do with this assistance - the bridges, oil storages, hospitals, schools and several other socio-economic infrastructures in the SADCC countries - which the bandits and their South African supporters are reducing to rubble. Is this what the people who give us aid want to see happen to their aid? Do they want to give us aid to build schools and hospitals only to allow them to be turned to rubble by their friend, the South African Government? We appeal to the international community to help us end this madness. All we want for the countries of SADCC is to be allowed to develop our economies in peace and tranquillity. That is all we ask of the international community. The Middle East has continued to be a hotbed of tension.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“They still get weapons and stinger missiles from some Members of this Organization. There are those who seem to derive comfort from the bloody carnage in southern Africa so long as their own interests, be they ideological or simply racist, are served. The countries of SADCC have no capacity to wage war against South Africa, not is it their intention or ambition to acquire such a capacity. They have sought to devote their meagre resources and the energies of their peoples to the development of their economies in an endeavour to lessen their dependence on South Africa and to promote regional economic integration in the spirit of the Lagos Plan of Action.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“For the rest, the magnitude of the havoc wreaked by destabilization is ghastly. It is estimated that between 1980 and 1986 the cost in destroyed social and economic infrastructure in the SADCC States is roughly $US 30 billion. This is infrastructure SADCC needs desperately if its member States are to liberate their economies from South Africa's economic colonialism. But there is another cost which cannot be quantified: the cost in human life. How does one put a price on the massacred victims of Homoine, Majacaze, Mandimba, Mechungwe and Sena in Mozambique? How can we put a price on them? And yet the RENAMOs and UNITAs of this world still have friends here from the Western world and elsewhere. South Africa is not alone in playing godfather, employer and financier to them.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“Massacres such as those that have been occurring with increasing frequency in the People's Republic of Mozambique are threatening to become the order of the day. Using Namibia as a buffer to protect white supremacy in South Africa and as a base from which repeated acts of aggression are committed against its neighbours, Pretoria and its UNITA bandits are carrying out a scorched-earth policy in the south of Angola where untold misery is a common plight, the common plight of the people who live there. The cost in destroyed economic infrastructure runs into billions of dollars. Of the nine countries of the Southern African Development Co—ordination Conference (SADCC), only the United Republic of Tanzania has not been physically affected by South Africa's war of destabilization.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“The South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) is ready, and has always been ready, to begin implementation. The Secretary-General has been itching for action. The front-line States are ready to be as helpful as they can in the implementation of the resolution. Too much is at stake in our region. Thousands of lives are being lost in wars whose root cause is the situation in South Africa - in other words, apartheid. Like the sword of Damocles the apartheid military machine hangs over our heads. The majority-ruled States of the region have been reduced to war zones where bandit gangs in the employ of the Pretoria regime, complemented occasionally by its commando incursions, sow death and destruction.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“That is what they have been doing with regard to implementation of Security Council resolution 598 (1987) . But we do not see the difference between the two conflicts - the conflict in southern Africa threatens peace; the conflict in the Gulf threatens peace. Hence we do not see why people should spend sleepless nights and restless days trying to implement resolution 598 (1987) , and when we ask them to implement resolution 435 (1978) they resort to the veto. We cannot understand that. So we call for a redemption of honour on the part of the United Nations: the United Nations must redeem its honour. The people of Namibia must not be forced to continue to die needlessly in a war whose termination was decreed by the Security Council nearly 10 years ago through the adoption of resolution 435 (1978) .”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“The United Nations Charter contains all the powers the Security Council needs to have its resolution 435 (1978) implemented. The Security Council must demand - and demand with conviction and with a determined sense of purpose and not with equivocation - that South Africa co-operate in the implementation of Security Council resolution 435 (1978) or face the consequences. In other words, the demand for implementation of that resolution calls for the same toughness and determination with which the implementation of Security Council resolution 598 (197b) on the Iran-.Iraq conflict is being pursued. We want to hear all the permanent members of the Security Council in unison, as we saw them the other day on television, threaten dire consequences if Security Council resolution 435 (1978) is not implemented.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“It is nearly 10 years - and this is another scandal - since the Security Council adopted resolution 435 (1978) as a blueprint for peaceful decolonization, of Namibia. That the resolution remains a dead letter to date speaks uncharitably of the United Nations. Where is the Security Council which drafted resolution 435 (1978)? Where are the Western Powers, the so-called contact group that worked so hard nine years ago to have that resolution adopted by the Security Council? Why the silence, the inaction now? The failure to implement this important resolution cannot be explained away in any credible way, for the simple fact is that the Security Council has allowed itself to be enfeebled by the arrogance of a small Power, with the result that its own plan - its own blueprint - is likely to die an unnatural death.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“Also necessary and crucial as prerequisites for a successful launching of genuine and meaningful negotiations ate; the lifting of the state of emergency; the removal of troops from black townships; and the un banning of the African National Congress of South Africa (ANC), Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) and other political organizations whose unfettered participation in the creation of a new democratic constitutional order in South Africa is indispensable. Anything less is a waste of time. Just as we have said, and we say now, the so-called reforms are a waste of time - a waste of time and a vindication of our contention that all these reforms are designed to modernize the tyranny of apartheid, to make it acceptable or bearable to its victims, if that were possible.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“First, the white community, or its leaders, must accept as a fundamental and inescapable point of departure, the principle that nothing short of the creation of a truly democratic political order in a united non-racial South Africa will bring peace to that country. Nothing short of that would bring peace to that country. And an important corollary to that is the release from prison of the very leaders - Mandela and others - whose absence from amongst their people will not allow any negotiations to begin.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“We ask: how can a government that employs so much violence - a government which has killed so many children, so many old people, men and women - simply to enforce apartheid demand renunciation of violence on the part of apartheid's victims, the very same people it kills with impunity? As the Commonwealth negotiating concept envisaged, violence is to be suspended, not renounced, on both sides to enable the initiation of negotiations. This remains the best way to proceed with negotiations, and the onus is on the Pretoria regime to prove that its lavish rhetoric on negotiations is not one of those transparent ploys it often resorts to mask continuing intransigence on its part. The necessary conditions have to prevail for meaningful negotiations to have a chance of success.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“My country remains adamant in its conviction that if there is a way out of the quagmire of apartheid - and we believe there is for the rulers of South Africa - it is the way of peaceful negotiation, the kind of negotiation which the Commonwealth mission of peace that went to South Africa last year had tried to encourage, without success. We know what happened to that mission. It is not the kind of negotiation envisaged by the so-called National Council on which "black moderates" are to be invited to serve while the African National Congress of South Africa (AWC) and those other leaders of black South Africa who are considered radical are to be included only on condition that they renounce violence.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“I must repeat, talking peace and change in South Africa has become a dangerous undertaking, if not a crime, for those who are not part of the same government which does not want peace and change on terms acceptable to the totality of the people of South Africa. The visit to Senegal a few months ago by a group of white South Africans who have accepted the wisdom of talking peace with the real leaders of black South Africans has become an act of treachery in the jaundiced view of the rulers of South Africa. Those who engage in such extra-parliamentary but peaceful activities have been threatened with dire consequences.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“Despite all the urgings of the international community for change — and dramatic change - black townships are still under military occupation and detentions without trial of anti-apartheid activists - trade unionists, members of the clergy, students and even children - continue unabated. Even leaders of the United Democratic Front, who have taken such pains to follow the rules of peaceful agitation for change, are either in hiding or in prison. Indeed, no organization or institution in South Africa which seeks to identify itself peacefully with the struggle for change has been spared. Universities have become the latest candidates for emasculation and/or pacification. This may come as a surprise but talking peace and change in South Africa has become a dangerous undertaking.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“In our part of the world, in that troubled region of Southern Africa, the deadly menace of apartheid remains a source of great anxiety to the people of the region. The situation there is worse that it was when we met here last year. The country-wide state of emergency, through which the South African authorities had hoped to shield their strife-torn country against the eyes of the world and thus give free reign to the brutalities of apartheid, remains in force, but it has not given the country the peace it so desperately needs, nor has it made apartheid any less despicable and evil, or the pressure for change any less imperative. South Africa remains a violently racist and polarized country, despite the deafening rhetoric about reforms in Pretoria and Cape Town.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“It was in this spirit that an international conference on the challenge of Economic Recovery and Long-term Development in Africa was held in Abuja, Nigeria, in June this year, and an African Symposium on Grassroots Development was held in Niamey, Niger, during the same month. Heads of State of the Organization of African Unity have also called for an extraordinary session on the debt problem in the not-too-distant future. My delegation also welcomes the setting up of an advisory group by the Secretary-General to look at the question of African resource flows. We hope the report of this eminent group will be considered seriously by those in a position to assist. The political agenda of the session is familiar. It is almost the same agenda we have seen year after year, session after session in the past several decades.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)
“It is out hope that more follow-up efforts will be put forth to continue to seek meaningful and durable solutions to these problems. Similarly, we welcome the continuation of the Uruguay Round talks in the belief that they will find solutions to the problems of tariffs and non-tariff barriers which restrict free trade in the world to the detriment of third world countries. We, in Africa, are determined to play our role in the difficult search for solutions to these problems both in terms of developing strategies of self-reliance and in terms of playing the role of co-operating partners with other countries, especially the developed countries.”
1987-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 42 (1987)