U.N. split on apartheid ban

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 31

U.N. split on apartheid ban

NZPA Washington A United Nations committee has failed to agree on the text of an international convention against apartheid in sports after four years of trying. The committee is deadlocked on a controversial “third party” clause which would ask member States to stop their sportsmen competing against citizens of any country that has had sports exchanges with South Africa. There are also serious differences of opinion in the committee on clauses which call on member States to “take appropriate action,” including denying visas, to prevent sports contacts with South Africa. The 24-nation committee was set up by the United Nations General Assembly in November, 1976. It produced an International Declaration against Apartheid in Sports, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1977. The assembly then asked the committee to draft an international convention, a document that would be legally binding on United Nations member States that signed it.

The committee has told the United Nations Secre-tary-General (Dr Kurt Waldheim) that it has again not agreed. It asked for its mandate to be extended another year. United Nations sources say the Soviet bloc has joined the main Western nations in opposing the draft convention as it now stands. They say the third party clauses would effectively kill the Olympic Games as well as most other main international sporting contests because of the number of sportsmen from around the world who have competed against individual South Africans. The drive for a convention is led by Tanzania and Nigeria, with the support of the Organisation of African Unity. The only Western member of the committee is Canada, which has taken no part in recent deliberations of the committee’s working group. The committee chairman, Mr Besley Maycock, of Barbados, said he was now concentrating his efforts on a compromise proposal with a view to getting agreement in

the next 12 months. This compromise would drop the controversial third party clause, while expanding the powers of an international commission against apartheid in sports to deal with countries that defied the convention. “We are not likely to get agreement on the third party clause, and we do not want a convention signed. But we do want some teeth in the con-' vention that will cover the actions of third parties.”

He said the Springboks’ tours of New Zealand and the United States had fanned interest in the convention and “could be a fillip to the work of the committee.” The acting executive secretary of the O.A.U.’s mission to the United Nations,. Mr Mustafa Sam. said that black Africa would maintain its drivfe to get a convention accepted. “We do not have any economic influence in South

Africa, so we believe the sports issue is our best hope of bringing pressure to bear on apartheid. It will continue to be the guiding principle of our struggle against apartheid." He said that internationally sports and politics were “indivisible.” “The myth that they were separate was destroyed when the United States refused to go to the Moscow Olympics last year.”