2143Rdmeeting: 30 Apriw&Jfs~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ NEW YORK
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UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL RECORDS THIRTY-FOURTH YEAR MAY2 8 1982 2143rdMEETING: 30 ApRIw&jfs~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ NEW YORK CONTENTS Page Provisional agenda (S/Agenda/2 143) . % . Adoption of the agenda . , . Question concerning the situation in Southern Rhodesia: Letter dated 26 April 1979 from the Charge d’Afkires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of the Ivory Coast to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/13276) . NOTE Symbols of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with figures. Mention of such a symbol indicates a reference to a United Nations document. j ~Documents of the Security Council (symbol S/. .) are normally published in quarterly Supplements of the O@iaZ Records of the Security Council. The date of the document indicates the supplement in which it appears or in which information about it is given. The resolutions of the Security Council, numbered in accordance with .a system adopted in 1964, are published in yearly volumes of ResoZutions and Decisions of the Security Council The new system, which has been applied retroactively to resolutions adopted before 1 January 1965, became fully operative on that date. 2143rd MEETING Held in New York on Monday 30 April 1979, at 3.30 p.m. President: Mr. Ole ALGARD (Norway). At the invitation of the President, Mr. Tlou (Botswana) and Mr. Komatina (Yugoslavia) took the places reserved Present: The representatives of the following States: for them at the side of the Council chamber. Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Czechoslovakia, France, Gabon, Jamaica, Kuwait, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, 3. The PRESIDENT: Members of the Council have Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom of before them document S/13282, which contains the text Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of of a draft resolution sponsored by Bangladesh, Bolivia, America, Zambia. Gabon, Jamaica, Kuwait, Nigeria and Zambia. Members also have before them document S/13283, which con- Provisional agenda (S/Agenda/2143) tains the text of a telegram dated 27 April from the Chairman of the Special Committee on the Situation with 1. Adoption of the agenda regard to the Implementation of the’Declaration on the Granting of Independence to, Colonial Countries and 2. Question concerning the situation in Southern Peoples addressed to the President of the Council. Rhodesia: Letter dated 26 April 1979 from the Charge d’Af- 4. Mr. El-JEAAN (Kuwait): Mr. President, it gives me faires a.i; of the Permanent Mission of the Ivory great pleasure to congratulate you on the able manner in Coast to the United Nations addressed to the which you have been presiding over our informal and President of the Security Council (S/13276) formal deliberations. I also wish to congratulate your predecessor, Mr. Harriman of Nigeria, on his persever- The meeting was called to order at 4.05 p.m. ance and dedication during a month in which the Council was in almost continuous session. Adoption of the agenda 5. The Security Council meets today at a crucial moment in the life of Southern Rhodesia. The will of the The agenda was adopted. Council has already been clearly manifested in resolution 445 (1979), in which it condemned all attempts and ma- Question concerning the situation in Southern Rhodesia: nreuvres by the illegal regime, including its so-called elec- Letter dated 26 April 1979 from tlie Charg6 d’Affaires tions of April 1979, aimed at retaining and extending a.i. of the Permanent Mission of the Ivory Coast to the U&d Nations addressed to the President of the racist minority rule and at preventing the accession of Security Council (S/13276) Zimbabwe to independence and genuine majority rule. 1. The PRESIDENT: In accordance with the decision 6. Some would no doubt claim that a government is taken at the 2142nd meeting, I invite the representatives about to be installed in Rhodesia that has been chosen by of India, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Sri Lanka and the free elections in which all parties were allowed to partici- Sudan to take the places reserved for them at the side of pate freely and which were observed by impartial inter- the Council chamber. national observers. Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the declared winner in the sham elections, is already making appeals At the invitation of the President. Mr. JaipaI (India), Mr. to the Patriotic Front freedom fighters to lay down their Sangaret (Ivory Coast), Mr. Maina (Kenya), Mr. Fernando arms and accept what he calls the will of the people. (Sri Lanka) and Mr. Sahloul (Sudan) took the places Bishop Muzorewa has already called on the United King- reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber. dom and the United States to lift economic sanctions and to recognize his Government. 2. The PRESIDENT: I wish to inform members of the 7. Reports in the western press abound concerning the Council that I have received letters from the representa- coercive and corrupt measures used to rig the elections. tives of Botswana and Yugoslavia in which they request The Washington Post of 27 April rightly pointed out that to be invited to participate in the discussion of the ques- the new constitution under which the elections were car- tion on the agenda. In accordance with the usual practice, ried out was so stacked-with an automatic reserve of 28 I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those per cent of the parliamentary seats and control of the representatives to participate in the discussion without military, the police, the civil service and the judiciary for the right to vote, in conformity with the relevant provi- whites, who constitute less than 4 per cent of the popula- sions of the Charter and rule 37 of the provisional rules of tion-that the elections, no matter the level or ostensible procedure. fairness of the voting, could hardly be called free. The I New York Times of 26 April went a bit further by saying: installation of a new Government whose real task is to “The real issue is not how the election was conducted! but perpetuate white control in a country where whites make what it was about”. The newspaper, in its leading edttor- up only 4 per cent of the population. The constitutional ial, then posed the question:. plan worked out by Ian Smith made sure that whites would retain control of such key government functions as “But if Rhodesia’s leaders really believe that their the judiciary, the police and the military. It has been constitutional formula for distributing power has the rightly said that to observe or even acknowledge the overwhelming support of blacks, why did they allow elections would serve only to validate the discriminatory only whites to pass judgement on it in the earlier constitutional arrangement on which the elections rest’: referendum?” 12. It is the understanding of my delegation that the The New York Times gave the following reply to the Council is not called upon to do anything new. It is question it had posed: merely called upon to reaftirm its previous resolutions and to expose the tactics of the illegal regime. We merely “The electoral exercise just completed merely asked voters to state a preference among the black parties wish to tell the illegal regime that behind the mask of that had accepted Mr. Smiths-and the white Bishop Muzorewa there hides the face of Ian Smith. minority’s-constitutional plan. Voters opposed to the Hence, there can be no recognition of the Government to plan had the choice of abstaining-at the risk of repri- be installed and the sanctions must remain. sals from employers or soldiers-or of casting a dutiful 13. I should like to introduce the draft resolution con- vote for the least distasteful of the collaborating par- tained in document S/13282 on behalf of the delegations ties. It is therefore a mistake to assume that all the of Bangladesh, Bolivia, Gabon, Jamaica, Nigeria, Zam- blacks who cast ballots, under conditions of martial law, approved of the proposed structure.” bia and Kuwait. 14. The draft resolution reaffirms the illeealitv of the 8. With regard to the conduct of the elections them- Smith regime and reaffirms resolution 445 (i979’j, which selves, The New York Times of 27 April had this to say: is more timely than ever, since it declares that any elec- tions held under the auspices of the illegal racist regime “. serious doubts were raised by the potential for and the results thereof will be null and void. The draft forced voting in hundreds of ‘protected villages,’ where resolution recognizes the obvious when it states that the tribesmen have been forcibly gathered during the war, so-called elections were designed to perpetuate racist and in tribal areas patrolled by military ‘auxiliaries* minority rule. The draft resolution condemns the so- loyal to Bishop Muzorewa and to his principal internal called elections of April 1979 and reaffums that they are rival, the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole. null and void. It reiterates the call to all States not to accord recognition to any representatives or organ estab- “Another problem for advocates of recognition was lished by that process and to observe strictly the manda- the effort to deter peaceful opposition. In the Bulawayo area, a stronghold of... Joshua Nkomo, the police tory sanctions against Southern Rhodesia. detained some 900 -Nkomo supporters to head off a 15. We are confident that the members of the Council boycott campaign. In Salisbury, 500 black students at will adhere to the Charter and the previous decisions of the University of Rhodesia were intercepted by police when they attempted to march off the campus in pro- the Council and not fail the people of Zimbabwe at this test against the voting.*’ crucial stage in their history.