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upon a process of consultations with a view to enabling those of our members in a position to do so to make appropriate contributions to the security needs of Mozambique and other front-line states requiring such help.

Reaching into South Africa

17. We are agreed that the Commonwealth should give support to the victims and opponents of apartheid within South Africa.

18. We endorse individual and collective efforts to provide assistance to the victims of apartheid and we resolve to augment those efforts to the fullest extent possible. We recognise the particular value of the Nassau Fellowship Programme in providing educational opportunities to young South Africans, and intend to expand it.

19. In light of the problems created by the state of emergency and other repressive measures in South Africa, we consider the provision of humanitarian and legal assistance to detainees and their families a high priority, and those in a position to do so undertake to increase their individual efforts in this regard.

20. Recognising its growing importance, we shall also increase our support to the trade union movement in South Africa, in particular, for labour education.

21. We plan wherever possible to increase our individual contributions to economic and social development programmes in such fields as education.

22. Despite having to confirm the conclusion of the EPG that Pretoria is not prepared to negotiate fundamental change in South Africa, we believe that we should take advantage of any opportunity to promote real internal dialogue. In the absence of movement by the authorities in Pretoria, we shall increase our contacts with South Africans of differing viewpoints. We shall make an enhanced effort to give support to the opponents of apartheid through such activities as the organisation of conferences on the future of South Africa, the arrangement of visits and the publication of studies related to ending apartheid. We have agreed to consider means by which these activities could be co-ordinated and their importance highlighted.

23. The need for Commonwealth action to counteract South African propaganda and censorship by exposing the truth about apartheid has been made more pressing by the draconian curbs imposed on the press at the beginning of 1987. These amount to an all-out attempt to replace independent reporting of events in the country with its own propaganda. Largely as a result of these restrictions, much of what is happening in South Africa no longer reaches the television screens and newspapers of the outside world.

24. In view of what is at stake, we are agreed that the Commonwealth should give high priority to counteracting South African propaganda and censorship.

Namibia

25. We are gravely concerned that the impasse in Namibia’s progress to independence under the terms of resolution 435 seems to have assumed the proportions of a permanent stalemate. We again stress the illegality of South Africa’s presence in Namibia and we remain unanimously convinced of the view that resolution 435 provides the only basis for an internationally acceptable settlement of the Namibian question.

26. Linking the withdrawal of Cuban forces to a settlement under resolution 435—a linkage which we have unanimously rejected—has, in effect, provided an opening for the South African regime to continue to frustrate any progress towards implementation of the resolution. The challenge, therefore, is to develop an effective process of negotiation leading to the resolution’s implementation.

27. At Nassau we made it clear that the action which we envisaged in the Accord on Southern Africa should be directed equally towards ensuring South Africa’s compliance with the wishes of the international community on the question of Namibia. We also recall that at New Delhi we agreed that if South Africa continued to obstruct the implementation of resolution 435, the adoption of appropriate measures under the charter of the United Nations would have to be considered. These continue to be valid conclusions.

The Way Forward

28. The unfolding—but often unseen—tragedy of South Africa impels us to ensure that the world continues to focus its attention on apartheid until we meet again in full session. With the exception of Britain, we see great value as a measure of our continuing concern in establishing a Committee of Foreign Ministers able to meet periodically to provide high level impetus and guidance in furtherance of the objectives of this statement. The committee will comprise the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, Guyana, India, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe and will be chaired by the Secretary of State for External Affairs of Canada.

29. We believe that this statement provides a framework for a significant Commonwealth initiative to assist the region, and is one to which a number of Commonwealth countries, which hitherto have not been in a position to contribute to multilateral efforts, will be enabled to do so. It will require detailed consultations between both donor Commonwealth governments and the countries in question. We are instructing the Secretary-General to initiate these processes as a matter of the highest priority.

Lake Okanagan, 16 October 1987.

Copies of the official Communiqué of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Vancouver, Canada, are available from the Commonwealth & United Nations Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Private Bag, Wellington.

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