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CRITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN NAMIBIA

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1974

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA,
Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met at 2 p.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Charles C. Diggs, Jr. (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. DIGGS. The subcommittee will come to order.

Today we have the first of two hearings on the question of Namibia and the U.S. Government policy toward this issue. We have three private witnesses: Mrs. Elizabeth Landis, who is vice president of the American Committee on Africa, and who has been a consultant to the United Nations Council for Namibia; Mr. Douglas P. Wachholz of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; and Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, the representative in the United States of the South-West African People's Organization of Namibia (SWAPO).

The question of Namibia, or South-West Africa as it was previously known, is one which needs to be known better internationally, and especially in the United States. Following the unequivocal advisory opinion of June 1971 by the International Court of Justice affirming the General Assembly's 1966 action in General Assembly Resolution 2145 terminating the mandate, it is now clearly established that South Africa's occupation of the international territory is illegal, and that it is under an obligation to withdraw. All other States also have legal obligations to recognize the invalidity of the South African administration and to refrain from any action lending support or assistance to the illegal administration.

The U.S. Government, which supported General Assembly Resolution 2145 and also submitted a statement to the ICJ on the illegality of the South African administration in Namibia, has accepted the conclusions of the advisory opinion. The United States has made commendable statements on the necessity of independence and self-determination for Namibia. However, it has consistently failed to support the United Nations Council for Namibia, created by the General Assembly to administer the territory. It has also failed to produce a single proposal for implementing the advisory opinion, and has opposed all those presented until now.

It is therefore important that there be greater understanding of the Namibian issue among concerned Americans, and that the U.S. Government produce meaningful proposals for implementing the opinion,

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