Assembly welcomes deployment of UN observers.

• Position: United Nations - South Africa

The deployment of UN observers in South Africa was commended by the General Assembly on 18 December (resolution 47/116 A), as were other measures taken by the Secretary-General to address the, situation there and strengthen the 1991 National Peace Accord. The South African Government was urged to bring an end to ongoing violence, while respecting the right of its people to demonstrate peacefully in public.

The representatives of the people of South Africa were urged to resume "broad-based negotiations on transitional arrangements and basic principles for a process of reaching agreement on a new, democratic and non-racial constitution".

It was noted that "while positive measures have been taken by the South African authorities, including the repeal of key apartheid laws and the revision of major security legislation, important obstacles to achieving a climate conducive to free political activity remain". Only negotiations, initially undertaken by the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, would lead to the peaceful elimination of apartheid.

The Assembly adopted eight texts (47/81 and 47/116 A to G)--three without vote--on South Africa and apartheid. It requested all States to respect and enforce the oil and arms embargoes against South Africa. The work of the UN Trust Fund for South Africa to help repeal major apartheid laws was supported and assistance for the non-racial sports movement in the country was urged.

Reaffirming its conviction that apartheid was "a crime against humanity", the Assembly appealed to States to ratify or accede to the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

By a recorded vote of 93 to 39, with 23 abstentions, the Assembly deplored the "collaboration of Israel with the South African regime in the military and nuclear fields"

The first members of the UN Observer Mission in South Africa (UNOMSA) were deployed in September and, by the end of November, had been posted in all 11 regions of the country. They observed demonstrations and other forms of mass action to determine whether participants' actions were consistent with the established principles and guidelines for marches and political gatherings.

The UN mission was complemented in October and November by observers from the Commonwealth, the European Community and the Organization of African Unity. Coordination sessions were held between leaders of the observer groups at UNOMSA headquarters in Johannesburg and at its...