Five Five of S;olida rity Edited by INDIAN COUNCIL FOR CULTURAL RELATIONS The bonds of friendship between India and Namibia are, indeed, unique. They were forged at a time when India was not yet fully independent and Namibia, then called the mandated territory of South West Africa, was threatened with extinction as a separate entity. India took the lead in preventing the incorporation of South West Africa by its mandatory power, the Union of South Africa at the very first session of the United Nations General Assembly in 1946. Since then, India never wavered in her determination to secure full independence for the people of Namibia, bending all her efforts and her resources to this end. The documents presented in this collection have been selected with a view to highlight the distinct stages in the evolution of Namibia's nationhood and to bring into focus the principled and consistent support extended by India to the people of Namibia through their long and arduous struggle. A new chapter opened with Namibia's independence and the solidarity between the people of India and Namibia now gets strength through bilateral agreements and reciprocal visits at high levels., ISBN: 81-224-0772-2 Namibia-India Five Decades of Solidarity Edited by T G Ramamurthi INDIAN COUNCIL FOR CULTURAL RELATIONS NEW DELHI & NEW AGE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, PUBLISHERS WILEY EASTERN LIMITED NEW DELHI o BANGALORE o BOMBAY * CALCUTTA o GUWAHATI HYDERABAD* LUCKNOW & MADRAS o PUNE o LONDON Copyright © 1995 ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) New Delhi NEW AGE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, PUBLISHERS * WILEY EASTERN LIMITED NEW DELHI 4835/24, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-I10 002 BANGALORE 27, Bull Temple Road, Basavangudi, Bangalore-560 004 BOMBAY 128/A, Noorani Building, Block No. 3, First Floor, L.J. Road, Mahim, Bombay-400 016. CALCUTTA 40/8, Ballygunge Circular Road, Calcutta-700 019 GUWAHATI Pan Bazar, Rani Bari, Guwahati-781 001 HYDERABAD 2412/9, Gaganmahal, Near A.V. College, Domalguda, Hyderabad-500 029 LUCKNOW 18, Madan Mohan Malviya Marg, Lucknow-226 001 MADRAS No. 6, Ist Main Road, Gandhi Nagar, Madras-600 020 PUNE Flat No. 2, Building No. 7, Indira Cooperative Housing Society Ltd. (Indira Height), Paud Fatta, Erandawane, Karve Road, Pune-441 038 LONDON Wishwa Prakashan Ltd., Spantech House, Lagham Road, South Godstone, Surrey, RH9 8HB, U.K. This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher This book is not to be sold outside the country to which it is consigned by Wiley Eastern Limited ISBN: 81-224-0772-2 Published by V.S. Johri for Wiley Eastern Limited, 4835/24, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110 002, and printed at Indraprastha Press, New Delhi-I 10 002. Printed in India FOREWORD The bonds of friendship between India and Namibia are, indeed, unique. They were forged at a time when India was not yet fully independent and Namibia, then called the mandated territory of South West Africa, was threatened with extinction as a separate entity. India took the lead in preventing the incorporation of South West Africa by its mandatory power, the Union of South Africa at the very first session of the United Nations General Assembly in 1946. Since then, India never wavered in her determination to secure full independence for the people of Namibia, bending all her efforts and all her resources to this end. While India always considered that her own freedom was incomplete until all colonial peoples and nations had been freed, it has also been her conviction that no country can be really independent unless political freedom is speedily followed by self-reliant development with the mutually beneficial cooperation of friendly countries. That this is no cliche came home to me when I had the privilege to be India's first High Commissioner in independent Namibia. As President Sam Nujoma observed, while opening the first Indian Trade Fair in free Namibia on 14 September 1991, The new chapter, opened with Namibia's independence, has increased the opportunities and strengthened the bonds of friendship that had been created during the struggle.... The solidarity between the people of India and Namibia now gets strength through bilateral agreements and reciprocal visits iv at high levels. The visit of the President of India to Namibia in June 1995 is thus an appropriate occasion to recall the stages through which India had stood firmly behind the people of Namibia for five decades. This documentary survey brings into focus the principled and consistent support extended by India to the people of Namibia through their long and arduous struggle and describes the steps being taken through mutual agreements to further strengthen our brotherly relations. p,. (Shiv Shankar Mukherjee) Director-General Indian Council for Cultural Relations EDITOR'S NOTE The documents presented in this collection do not merely speak of India's contribution to Namibia's independence. They reflect the course of the tortuous yet determined struggle of the people of Namibia for their independence, integrity and progress, under the leadership of the South West Africa Peoples Organisation (SWAPO). Essentially, the progress of Namibia to independence was marked by three stages, the most important of them being the preservation of the territorial integrity and international status of the former mandated territory, followed by the taking over of the administration de jure by the United Nations through its Council for Namibia and the drawing up of an agenda for full freedom under international guarantee and aegis. India is legitimately proud to have a played a useful and effective role in all these stages, especially in the early years of the United Nations, when African-Asian strength in the world body was negligible. The first stage began with the thwarting of attempts to incorporate the territory of South West Africa into the then Union of South Africa in 1946 and ended with the termination of the League of Nations Mandate of the Union of South Africa over the territory of South West Africa in 1966 and the renaming of the territory as Namibia in 1968. India welcomed the assumption of direct responsibility by the United Nations as 'unique, historic and sacred'. The second stage was marked by the emergence of the SWAPO as the 'sole and authentic' representative of the people of Namibia. While favouring peaceful negotiations to hasten the independence of Namibia, India had no hesitation in extending moral and material support to the armed struggle which the SWAPO found ineluctable in the face of fierce and ruthless oppression by the occupying power. The third stage began with the adoption of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 435 of 1978 which laid down an agenda for Namibia's independence. From then on, India directed all her efforts to get that Resolution fully and faithfully implemented. To this end, India gave diplomatic recognition to the SWAPO and provided it with facilities to publicize its cause and mobilize support from important and influential groups of countries, including the Non-aligned Movement and the Commonwealth. The Brazzaville accord of December 1988 ushered in an era of hope and challenge in India-Namibia relations, having established a definite time-frame for the implementation of the Security Council Resolution of 1978. India participated fully and fervently in the Nationhood programme for Namibia launched by the U.N. Council for Namibia through direct programmes of human resources development as well as through multilateral schemes. The documents presented in this collection have been selected with a view to highlight the distinct stages in the evolution of Namibia's nationhood and to recall the solidarity that marked India's relations with the people of Namibia. Africa Quarterly wishes to gratefully acknowledge the cooperation extended by the Library of the Ministry of External Affairs, in particular Shri V.K. Jain, Director (Information & Library) by providing access to the bulk of the documents included in this collection. Thanks are also due to the Africa Division of the Ministry of External Affairs, to the National Archives of India and to Mr. E.S. Reddy, formerly Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations. The Editor wishes to record his sincere appreciation of the encouragement and support given by the Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Shri Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, who took personal interest in this project. Thanks are also due to the staff of the Council, in particular Shri O.P. Madan, Programme Director, for making available various facilities to complete this project speedily. vii The Indraprastha Press and Shri A.K. Saini deserve our sincere thanks for bringing out the journal in a record time of two months and making available the material for the book. Shri Asang Machwe of Wiley Eastern Limited came forward with his usual enthusiasm and energy to undertake the publication of the book, for which we record our sincere appreciation. (T.G. Ramamurthi) Editor CONTENTS Foreword i Editor's Note v Introduction I 1. Annexation Averted 11 2. Trusteeship an Obligation 15 3. No Option but to Prevent Annexation 17 4. Trusteeship not Sovereignty 20 5. Partition Opposed 26 6. Partition but a Ruse for Annexation 38 7. World Court Decision Regrettable 43 8. Terminate the Mandate 47 9. A Grave Situation 54 10. Sanctions only Solution 57 11. Encouragement of Racist Regime Deplored 60 12. India Thanked for Material Support 65 13. Warm Welcome to a Hero 68 14. Internal Settlement Rejected 71 15. U.N. General Assembly Must Act Now 79 16. Subversion of U.N. Plan Condemned 80 17. SWAPO'S Victory is Certain 86 18. NAM Solidly Behind SWAPO 88 19. Namibia's Freedom Remains a Test for U.N.