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The ISSN 00 I 4- I 690 Ethical Record Vol. 95 No. 8 SEPTEMBER 1990 Editorial removing the Iranian Prime Minister, who had challenged Western interests by THE MIDDLE EAST nationalising the oilfields. More recently, PAST AND PRESENT Britain has been one of the leading arms Suppliers to Iraq (hence one of the main RIGHTLY. IRAQ'S SADDAM HUSSEIN is re- architects of the military might garded as the current bully of the Middle. unleashed on Kuwait). It has also been East. His invasion of Kuwait and instal- one of Iraq's chief trading partners (£450 lation of a puppet regime there are clearly million in exports last year). The British the acts of a political gangster. (In facth is Government permitted all this activity tactics are similar to those used by Hitler while being fully aware of the brutal in his 1938-39 annexations.) It's theIefore nature of the Hussein regime. good and encouraging that the world Ahead of Britain in supplying arms to community has condemned his actions Iraq was the Soviet Union, which protests and seeks to take punitive steps against against Hussein's adventurism because it him. now shares with the United States a However, when we speak of the world desire for stability in the Middle East. community. let's be careful to distinguish This agreement with the US stems partly between those parties which have. clean from ith present need of American econo- political records and those which do not; mic aid, and its unwillingness (given its and between those who speak mainly or enormous infernal problems) to engage wholly from moral principle, and those in regional conflicts with the Americans. whose voice is largely that of economic It's of course not the case that the Soviets self-interest and expediency. It's a sad have always been opposed to adven- fact that not all the 'cries of prote:st we turism. Their still recent aggression in hear fall into the former categories. Afghanistan (using tactics similar to To take Britain 'first: this country was, Hussein's). is one of many illustrations of up to the 'immediate post-War period, the this; so too is the major threat they once leading interventionist in the Middle posed to the northern borders of oil- East. Operating through the mandate rich Iran. • and protectorate system (used also by Finally, there is the United States. The France), it had semi-colonial control US has shown itself almost equally con- over Egypt. Palestine Iraq and Kuwait cerned about a possible invasion of and exercised wide influence over other Saudi Arabia as it has about the actual areas, such as Jordan, the Arabian penin- invasion of Kuwait. This is not surpris- sula and Iran. In Iran in 1953, British agentsjoined with the American CIA in continued on next page CONTENTS Page Coming to Conway Hall 22 Namibia: Aspects of Democracy, Part H—Michael Wolfers . 3 Citizen Richard Leer—Jim Clayson 7 The Anarchism of Alex Comfort—David Goodway 19 The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society Published by the South Place Ethical Society, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY The Humanist Centre, Conway Hall 25 Red Lion Square. London WC1R 4RL. Telephone: 071-831 7723 Hall Lettings: 071-242 8032. Lobby: 071-405 4125 ;Appointed Lecturers: Harold Blackham, T. F. Evans, Peter Heales, Richard Scorer, Barbara Smoker. Harry Stopes-Roe, Nicolas Walter. Trustees: Christine Bondi, Louise Booker, John Brown, Anthony Chapman, Peter Heales, Don Liversedge, Ray Lovecy, Ian MacKillop, Victor Rose. Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes-Roe. • Honorary Representative: Norman Bacrac. Chairman General Committee: Diane Murray. Deputy Chairman: David Williams. Honorary Registrar: Ann Wood. Honorary Treasuier: Don Liversedge. Secretary: Nicholas Hyman. Hall Manager: Geoffrey Austin. Honorary Librarian: Edwina Palmer. Editor, The Ethical Record: ibm Rubens. Concerts Committee Chairman: Lionel Elton. General Committee: The Officers and Jean Bayliss, Cynthia Blezard. Lesley Dawson. Govind N. Deodhekar, Brian Haynes, Ellis Hillman, Martin Harris, Naomi Lewis. Lisa Monks, Terry Mullins, Lydia Vernet, Nicolas Walter. Finance Committee: Chair: Don Liversedge. Development Committee: Nicolas Walter. ing: 15.2% of its total oil imports come In all, these considerations should from 'Saudi Arabia. Also, America's prompt a critical attitude toward the avowal of concern for Kuwait is in part - apparently moral element in the big actuated by fear of rising oil prices as a powers' opposition to Hussein. That ele- result of Huiisein's gaining control over ment, as always with the major powers, is the country's resources. It's therefore fraught with ambiguity and irony. highly significant that a leading US The immediate task ahead is to remove senator has described Hussein's invasion Hussein and his power apparatus from of Kuwait and possible incursion into Kuwait, by force if necessary. Once this Saudi Arabia as perhaps the biggest has been achieved, it is hoped that there economic threat to the US since World will be a complete review of Britain's and War Two. The senator presu mably the Soviet Union's recent policies toward regards this as a greater danger than that Iraq, plus a demonstration from them created by the fall of the Shah of Iran in and the Americans that their concern 1979, when America's vast influence on about the Middle East will from now on Iran's oil industry, an influence which be a primarily moral one, directed at had long since replaced Britain's, came to securing peace. human rights, democracy an end. and independent nationhood. Thc Ethical Record is posted free to members. The annual charge to Subscribers is £6. Matter for publication should reach the Editor, Tom Rubens, Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC IR 4RL (071-831 7723) no later than the FIRST OF THE MONTH for publication in the following month's issue. 2 Ethical Record. September 1990 NAMIBIA: ASPECTS OF DEMOCRACY-PART II Conclusion of a Talk given by Michael Wolfers on Sunday. May 6, 1990 THE CALENDAR OF EVENTS IIAS BURDENED you with an enormous amount of detail and I thank you for your patience. I should like to complement this with a few words of explanation on particular aspects of the Namibia independence process that caught international public attention. Adults over the age of 18 who were Namibian-born or offspring of parents born in Namibia were eligible for registration. An additional clause allowed the vote to non- Namibians who had been resident in Namibia for four years prior to registration. This concept had been introduced by South Africa in 1978 to boost participation in the puppet internal elections. It was intended to apply to those "ordinarily resident in the territory-. SWAPO strenously opposed the notion of allowing the vote in the independence election to foreigners and to seconded South African personnel. The UN did not listen to SWAPO's plea and allowed the Administration to retain the clause in .1989. The requirement of ordinary residence was blurred. At least 10,000 residents of South Africa who had no commitment to a future Namibia—and a less quantifiable number of Angolan exiles—registered. Their votes under the system I described earlier were worth at least one and possibly two or three additional seats to the opposition. South Africa bent the rules in another direction by refusing to allow voter registra- tion in the Atlantic port of Walvis Bay. Some Walvis Bay inhabitants went to neighbouring Swakopmund to register by presenting birth certificates and proof of at least one parent being born in Namibia as a whole. The regulation was discriminatory against black rural-born Namibians who did not have birth certificates as opposed to white hospital-born Namibians who were issued with certificates. The Namibia election offered the voters a choice between a break with the colonial past and varying degrees of collaboration with colonialism. An election genuinely fought on this ground would be a walk-over for SWAPO. South Africa invested money and a public relations effort into shifting attention to an election issue where SWAPO was vulnerable: detainees held by SWAPO during the latter years of the anti-colonial war. As we know, South Africa was responsible for killings and detentions of SWAPO supporters on a massive scale in Namibia and in Angola and over many years. In February. 1986 it was announced for SWAPO that a network of about 100 South African spies within the movement in Angola and Zambia had been uncovered in 1983. Detentions and military court trials had followed. The 1978 settlement proposals required that "Namibians detained or otherwise out- side the territory of Namibia will be permitted to return peacefully and participate fully and freely in the electoral process.- SWAPO's opponents sought to undermine SWAPO's credibility with charges of human rights violations and the holding of thousands of detainees from within SWAPO's own ranks. Even a single case of abuse of human rights cannot be justified and we expect more of the liberation movement than from the oppressor. Ethical Record, September 1990 3 However, in the context of the public relations spending to direct attention to this issue during the election campaign..it may be worth looking at the scale of possible abuse. In 1989 SWAPO again corm rmed that it had held some detainees in Angola on sus- picion of espionage for South Africa. On May 24 1989, a first group of persons was released from SWAPO detention near Lubango in Angola into the care of the Angolan authorities and under UN observation: 201 detainees were released, of whom 153 returned to Namibia on July 4, 1989 under the UNHCR voluntary repatriation scheme.