unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (08/24/89)
SECURITY COUNCIL -- TAKE 7
Continuing, Mr. DASGUPTA (India) said urgent steps were also needed to
resolve other outstanding problems, namely, to release remaining SWAPO
prisoners, to repeal all remaining discriminatory laws and to provide
equitable media access to all political parties.
India appreciated the efforts of the Secretary-General and was confident
that UNTAG would successfully fulfil the role assigned to it in the
Independence Plan, provided it was extended co-operation and support from all
concerned.
He called on the Council to address the imperative need for quick results
which would allow a reasonable period of peace and tranquility before
elections and which would restore the confidence of the Namibian people in the
impartiality of the election process. The international community could ill
afford to let the credibility of the United Nations be eroded, nor could it
let down the Namibian people.
A.H.G. MOHIUDDIN (Bangladesh) said the events which were rapidly
unfolding in Namibia tended to belie the world's trust in the assurances by
South Africa. The hated Koevoet had been reincarnated in the South West
African Police, whose CASSPIR armoured personnel carriers, and machine-guns
made them perhaps the heaviest armed police force in existence. Massive
enrolment of South Africans was taking place in the voters list of Namibia.
That hardly augured well for fair elections. Furthermore, new election
proclamations were perceived as attempts to deny the Namibians, and even some
members of the SWAPO leadership, the exercise of their fundamental electoral
rights. Even if some of those were allegations, it must be remembered that if
peace and freedom were to come to Namibia, justice must not only be done but
also be seen to be done.
He commended the "untiring efforts" of the Secretary-General to bring
peace to Namibia and urged the Council, and the international community to do
all possible to strengthen his hand.
The international community must display total solidarity with the
Secretary-General's endeavours and render him all possible assistance. Should
he at any point feel that a stronger United Nations presence was necessary in
Namibia, the Council must not hesitate to endorse his requirements. He was
confident that the Secretary-General would succeed in Namibia, just as he had
on so many other issues. He was the "symbol of peace of our times", and
deserving of deepest respect and fullest support.
Pretoria could not be allowed to carry on its odious conduct with
impunity, he said. He knew of no place where tyranny had expressed itself
more starkly than it had in Namibia, and no occupier that perpetrated
depredations more ruthlessly than that apartheid regime.
In the interest of peace, he appealed to Pretoria not to place needless
impediments in the way of change. For, in that case the regrettable result
would be what the representative of Egypt has called, "a precarious form of
independence".
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
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Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations
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