General Assembly Reso West Africa Had Lapsed Since the Demise of the League Lution 1360 (XIV) of Nations
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United Nations FOURTH COMMITTEE, 1050th GENERAL MEETING Monday, 14 November 1960, ASSEMBLY at3.20 p.m. FIFTEENTH SESSION Official Records NEW YORK CONTENTS unanimous conclusions on the situation in South West Page Africa. Requests for hearings (.continued) 4. Chapter I of part I of the report described the Requests concerning agenda item 43 (Question Committee's terms of reference, its composition and of South West Africa) (continued) • • • • • • • 301 its work since the previous session. Chapter II gave Agenda item 43: an account of the Committee's efforts to enter into Question of South West Africa (continued): negotiations with the Union of South Africa, which had @) Report of the Committee on South West so far come to nothing because the Union Government Africa.,· had persistently refused to recognize the authority of @) Report on negotiations with the Govern the United Nations, on the pretext that its own com ment of the Union of South Africa in ac mitments towards the Mandated Territory of South cordance with General Assembly reso West Africa had lapsed since the demise of the League lution 1360 (XIV) of Nations. Chapter ID dealt with the question of legal Opening statement • • . • • • • • • • • • • . • 301 action to ensure the fulfilment of the obligations as Hearing of petitioners (continued) • • • • • • • 302 sumed by the Union of South Africa and mentioned the various reports the Committee had drawn up on the 'subject (A/3625, A/3906, A/AC.73/2), Chapter IV Chairman: Mr. Adnan M. PACHACHI (Iraq). concerned the examination of petitions and communi cations relating to South West Africa. Since there were so many of them, they appeared in a separate Requests for hearings (continued) document (A/AC. 73/3). REQUESTS CONCERNING AGENDA ITEM 43 5. Chapter I of part II of the report gave the history (QUESTION OF SOUTH WEST AFRICA) (continued)* of the qu~stion. It showed that, at the time of the es tablishment of the United Nations, the Government of 1. The CHAIRMAN informed the members of the the Union of South Africa had made explicit reser Committee that a request for a hearing in connexion vations about the status of the Territory. Since then, with the question of South West Africa had been re whenever the General Assembly had recommended that ceived from Mr. Oliver Tambo. If there were no ob South West Africa should be placed under Trusteeship, jections, the request would be circulated as a docu the Union of South Africa had objected. The Union ment. Government's whole policy seemed to be dominated It was so decided.!! by its determination to integrate South West Africa into the territory of the Union and eventually to annex AGENDA ITEM 43 it. That accounted for the failure of the Good Offices Committee and of the Committee's own negotiations. Question of South West Africa (continued): In flagrant violation of the Mandate, the Charter and (9) Report of the Committee on South West Africa (A/ 4464) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Union ~) Report on negotiations with the Government of the Union Government seemed determined to enforce the policy of "apartheid", which denied the indigenous inhabitants of South Africa in accordance with General Assembly all political rights, confined them to "Native" Re resolution 1360 (XIV) serves, subordinated their interests to those of the European settlers and imposed the system of Bantu OPENING STATEMENT education on them. The subsequent chapters of the report showed that, according to the information 2. Mr. CARPIO (Philippines) (Rapporteur of the Com available, the situation in the Territory had not mittee on South West Africa) in the absence of Mr. changed; on the contrary, the gap between the indige Rodriguez Fabregat, the Chairman of the Committee nous people and the people of European origin had who had been recalled to Uruguay because of a death steadily grown wider. The outstanding event in the in his family, presented that Committee's report period considered had been the setting up of three (A/4464). indigenous organizations: the South West Africa 3. The report followed the general plan of earlier People's Organisation, the South West AfricaNational ones. Since the Mandatory Power had sent no annual Union and the South West African Coloured Organi report, the Committee had used information which the zation, which were fighting together for the liberation Secretariat had obtained from various sources, written of the people of the Territory. ar.d oral petitions, press cuttings and so forth. After 6. In conclusion, he asked the Fourth Committee to studying that material the Committee had reached give all due consideration to the Committee's report .!/ Resumed from the 1025th meeting, and its examination of the question of South West .!/ The request was subsequently circulated as document A/C.4/443/ Africa, at a time when the colonial peoples were Add.2. redoubling their efforts to achieve emancipation. 301 A/C,4/SR,1050 302 General Assembly- Fifteenth Session- Fourth Committee HEARING OF PETITIONERS (continued) the reserves and the restrictions on the movement of At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr. van Ismael Africans, who were relegated to reserves or employed Fortune, Mr. Mburumba Kerina, theReverendMarkus as cheap labour by t~e whites, who had become rich Kooper, Mr. Jariretundu Kozonguizi, Mr. Jacob Ku at their expense. A minority of white immigrants hangue, Mr. Sam Nujoina and the Reverend Michael· · occupied the whole Territory, while the indigenous Scott took places at the Committee table. majority was confined to the reserves, now known as "Black Spots". In speaking of the Hoachanas land, 7. Mr. KOZONGUIZI thanked the Committee for he was not defending the reserve system: he only giving him a hearing. He was sorry that the Minister wanted to point out that by proclaiming the Hoachanas for Foreign Affairs of the Union of South Africa, who rand a 11 reserve 11 the German Government had recog had spoken of his so-called 11 disparaging11 remarks nized the Rooinasie Namas as its rightful owners. about the United Nations, was not present to hear The Union Government, using indefensible legal argu what was said about the atrocities of the Union Govern ments, refused to recognize the inalienable rights of ment, l).is own political past and the nauseating remarks. the Rooinasie people over the whole of Hoachanas. about the United Nations made by Mr. van der Wath, Between 1920 and 1930 ithadalienated36,000hectares a member of the South African delegation to the four of their land. It had been at that period that it had teenth session of the Assembly. first urged the inhabitants to leave Hoachanas for Aminuis, the present Herero reserve. When the in 8. The CHAIRMAN asked the petitioner to refrain habitants had refused, the authorities had fenced off from personal attacks. Hoachanas and the Union Government had declared 9. Mr. KOZONGUIZI said that the new petitioners that it was no longer interested in their fate. That now appearing before the Committee had witnessed was how it had carried out its "sacred trust11 for the serious incidents at Windhoek in 1959. They had the last forty-one years. The Fourth Committee should been the victims of repression designed to destroy ask the Union Government to give it a detailed report legitimate opposition and had made great sacrifices on the way in which the High Court had examined to come and give evidence. He did not intend to defend the legal status of Hoachanas in 1958. the views he had expressed on the Peking radio: he 12. The barren land of Itzawisis, on which the Union was neutral in the 11 cold war" but he could not be Government intended to resettle the Rooinasie Namas, 11 11 neutral where imperialism and colonialism were con was itself an alienated land of the Berseba gebeit , a cerned. The Union Minister for Foreign Affairs ac term which, under the GerJllan administration, had cused him of building up "subversive organizations11 denoted not simply a reserve, but all the land owned from abroad. It was true that the South West African and occupied by the tribe. The present use of the term National Union had helped to transport victims of the "Berseba Reserve" was causing the inhabitants great Sharpeville incidents to Ghana. It received moral sup concern. The Chief Bantu Affairs Commissioner port from foreign states and from legally constituted claimed that the two terms were synonymous. If foreign organizations which were fighting racial and that were the case, why should the old term not be fascist theories. Ghana was not alone in helping the retained? In truth, a blow had been struck at the indigenous people of South West Africa. Liberia and people's inalienable right to their lands, and mining Ethiopia, with the support of the other African states, operations had even been ·carried out without their had started legal action against the Union of South consent. The Chief Bantu Affairs Commissioner, Mr. Africa; various United states organizations had helped Blignaut, had stated that the peop~e could use the the indigenous people, and the United states Govern surface of the land, but that the· subsoil belonged to ment had not objected; Norway and Sweden had given the Union Government; in fact, the whole Territory scholarships. The Union Government, which was ob of South West Africa belonged to the Union Govern structing even the assistance given by the specialized ment, which could do whatever it wished there, pro agencies, could not be expecte!i to prepare the indige vided it had the approval of two-thirds of Parliament. nous people for independence. Since 1946, the African people of South West Africa 10. Pending the results of the legal action initiated had consistently refused to see their Territory become by Ethiopia and LiberiaY, should deportations and a fifth province of the Union, and it might be asked other repressive acts be allowed to continue? Must when and with whose consent that Territory had been the exiles remain exiied and their families hostages? officially declared a province.