Sharpeville anniversary: condemnation at UN, killings of demonstrators in South Africa.

The violence at Uitenhage--where at least 19 persons were reported killed by South African police--took place on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, commemorated each year as the anniversary of the 21 March 1960 incident in Sharpeville. Sixty-nine people were shot and killed there and 180 others wounded during a peaceful demonstration against South African "pass laws", which require blacks to carry passes that determine where they may live. (For text of Declaration, see p.55.)

The Special Committee said its commemorative session coincided with "the sharp escalation of the multifaceted struggle of the people of South Africa for their liberation, characterized by the mass upsurge in the urban and rural areas of South Africa; the courageous struggle of the black workers with the support of their communities; the continuing and growing movement of the women and youth, combined with the politico-military resistance of all sections of the oppressed." In its Declaration, the Special Committee also "vehemently condemns the continuing massacres, killings and other atrocities against defenceless opponents of apartheid perpetrated by the racist regime in Sharpeville, Soweto, Sebokeng and other townships in South Africa, including the killings, in recent weeks of residents of Crossroads, who were demonstrating against plans for their forced removal."

Secretary-General's view

At the special meeting at Headquarters on 21 March in observance of the International Day Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar said that the elimination of apartheid, the independence of Namibia and the cessation of all destabilization efforts were prerequisites to peace and stability in southern Africa, and that there could be no peace in South Africa as long as the majority of the population was deprived of fundamental human rights and excluded from the mainstream of their country's national life. A just and lasting solution to the racial conflict in South Africa could not be reached without consultations with the representatives of all segments of the country's population.

The Secretary-General stated that the racial situation in South Africa had continued to deteriorate. "Indeed, even today, there has been a further serious loss of life as a result of the police firing into a group of marchers who were commemorating Sharpeville," he said. The recent detentions of black leaders opposing apartheid and charges of high treason against 16 of them had caused the unrest to escalate.

"Such policies and actions cast doubt on the Government's profession of peaceful change", he stated. "A policy which can be implemented only by coercion is bound to breed violence. There is an urgent need for the South African Government to take measures for the peaceful elimination of apartheid and...