Africans accept plan for Namibia

Press, 23 November 1981, Page 8

Africans accept plan for Namibia

NZPA-Reuter Lusaka Black African countries have responded to Western proposals on Namibian (South-West African) independence by calling for speedy elections and recommending guaranteed freedom of speech, assembly, movement, and the press, according to a document obtained by Reuters yesterday. The State-owned "Zambia Daily Mail” published extracts from what appeared to be the same document.but Zambian State House and Foreign Ministry officials declined to say whether it was authentic. The response drafted at a Ministerial meeting of the African “front-line States” (Tanzania, Botswana. Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique) and Nigeria, Kenya and the South-West Africa People’s Organisation, in Tanzania earlier this week was intended only for the five Western “contact group” States who drew up the Western proposals, the officials said. But informed diplomatic sources said the 600-word document, entitled, “The position of the front-line States. Nigeria, Kenya and 5.W.'A.P.0.,” appeared to be the one circulated to the United States, Britain, Canada, West Germany and France. A British' Foreign Office spokesman said in London that the black States and

S.W.A.P.O. had agreed in principle to the Western proposals with what he called minor modifications. This confirmed reports from diplomats in Tanzania on the outcome of the Ministerial talks. But. the official Angolan news agency. Angop. in a report headed, “acceptance of latest Western proposals denied.” said yesterday that the meeting had only produced counter-proposals. The Angop report suggested that Angola was irritated that the West had published an agreement implying. .African concessions before replying to the changes suggested by the Dar-es-Salaam meeting. Neither .the Western five nor the Afrian countries have officially released details of the African response to the West’s proposals which were canvassed last month by the “contact group” during an African tour. The Western proposals were leaked to the South African press shortly after the tour began, and the apparently accurate black African response obtained yesterday followed its format closely. On the subject of a constituent assembly to be elected under United Nations supervision, the African response goes into far greater detail than the original proposal. The Western draft says

i only. that. “The constituent - assembly should be elected i so as to ensure fair representation in that body to > different political groups rei presenting the people of Namibia." But the African Ministers i and S.W.A.P.O. have specii fied that the “constitution : will determine the organisa- ; tion and powers of all levels t of government." The document also calls for every adult Namibian to be able to vote, and campaign for and contest elecl tion to the constituent assembly without discrimina- ; tion or fear of intimidation. ; It continues: “The date for > the beginning of the electoral campaign, the date of elec- : tions,' the electoral system', : the preparation of voters' f rolls and other aspects of ; electoral procedures will be

promptly decided upon so as to give all political parties and interested persons, without regard to their political views, a full and fair opportunity to organise and participate in the electoral process.” - Some parts of the second section of the document under the heading: “Principles for a constitution for an independent Namibia” are identical with the “contact group’s” proposals. But it is less specific in its description of the form the new government system will take. The “contact group" pro-

posed a three-branch system i of elected executive, elected ; legislature, and independent I judiciary while the document says the constitution would ! determine the organisation 1 and powers of all levels of 1 government. I “However, we note that s most governments are structured on a basis of an elected i executive, a legislature 1 elected by universal and I

equal suffrage which is 1 responsible for the passage ] of all laws, an independent 1 judiciary which is responsi- 1 ble for the interpretation of the constitution and for en- i suring its supremacy and the I authority of the law, and that ;

the executive and legislative branches are constituted by periodic and genuine elections, which are held by secret vote,” it says. It also calls for a declaration of fundamental rights consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recommends that creation of retrospective criminal offences should be forbidden. ; One Western envoy said in Dar-es-Salaam. Tanzania, on Saturday that, "What the front-liners and S.W.A.P.O. are saying to the ‘contact group' is: ‘You have our support, now go and convince South Africa’." A Zambian presidential adviser told Reuters yesterday he had the impression that S.W.A.P.O. wanted to be seen to be in complete agreement with the Western five and to leave the next move to South Africa. S.W.A.P.O.’s president. Sam Nujoma. has been in Zambia since Tuesday but has made no direct reference to the ’ African response in speeches around the country. The Angolan-based guerrilla organisation, which has fought South African rule in the former German colony for 15 years, is widely expected to win a United Nations-supervised election there. The Angolan news agency report yesterday said bluntly that, "the front-line States and S.W.A.P.O. have not ac-

cepted the constitutional principles presented by the ‘contact group’ on Namibia and have, on the contrary, made a counter-proposal to these principles.’ “It is for this reason incredible. according to wellinformed sources, that there should be reports circulated of S.W.A.P.O. and the frontline States having accepted the Western proposals at their meeting in Dar-es-Salaam last Tuesday. “It is after all a negotiating process ... in which the Western proposals, after they were analysed, produced a counter-proposal." has not made any serious attempt to prepare its people for any big concessions to the West over the future of Namibia, although its official news media have in the last few weeks carried several reports that the Government was backing the Western initiative. Angola is the black State that has suffered most for support of 5.W.A.P.0., and the Government said this week that the economic plan might have to be revised because of the country’s war effort. Luanda savs a big part of its southern provinces north of the Namibian frontier is controlled by South African forces. But South Africa says all its forces pulled out of Angola in September after a huge raid to destroy S.W.A.P.O. bases.