LSM RESOLUTION ON SOUTH AFRICA

WHEREAS Namibia remains under South African control; and

WHEREAS South African control of Namibia is not an isolated phenomenon, but part of a sophisticated regional strategy whereby South Africa intends to exert substantial influence on the policies of all the “Front Line States”; Angola, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, as well as Namibia; and

WHEREAS South African initiatives to achieve such influence proceed in military, economic, political, and diplomatic channels, (for example, the stationing of about 100,000 troops in Namibia, or the sabotage of infrastructures in the Front Line States by South African-supported terrorist groups like UNITA, which forces all major trade to be funneled through South Africa;) and

WHEREAS the policies of the present Administration of the United States government aid the government of South Africa in its regional strategy, (for example, by providing the South African Defense Force with intelligence and assistance in strategic planning, and by using its veto on the U.N., such as comprehensive economic sanctions, which are likely to hasten reform in South Africa;) and

WHEREAS the will of the American people, as expressed through the ballot-box, and through the official acts of their legislator in the Congress of the United States can be effective in changing the execution of policy by the Administration;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT

1.  LSM-USA call for free and fair elections in Namibia; and that

2.  LSM-USA therefore endorse United Nations Security Council Resolution 435, which requires free and fair elections in Namibia supervised by the United Nations; and that

3.  LSM-USA in order to promote South Africa’s swift compliance with U.N.  Security Council Resolution 435,;

A.  Endorse the following legislation now pending in the U.S. Congress:

      1.  Senator Paul Simon’s Senate Resolution S.R. 254 and Representative Mervin Dymally’s House Resolution H.R.131, which direct the President to carry out policy congruent with the provisions of U.N.S.C. Resolutions 435;

      2.  Senator Bradley’s S.R 1474, which blocks further aid to UNITA until there has been a full and open discussion of the issue in Congress;

      3.  Representative Dellums H.R. 1580 and Senator Cranston’s S.R. 556, which call for comprehensive, mandatory, enforceable economic sanctions against South Africa; and

B.  Repudiate the Helms Resolution, S.R. 300, which contradicts the Simon and Dymally measures; and that

4.  LSM-USA include in it’s post-convention mailing to convention participants a letter encouraging individuals to:

A.  Communicate to their elected legislators in Congress their personal endorsement of      the bills herein endorsed by LSM, and their rejection of the Helms Resolution herein repudiated; and

B.  Make the issues raised by these bills lively elements of debate during the upcoming Presidential election campaigns; and that

5.  LSM-USA members be encouraged personally to carry our advocacy for Namibia on local, collegiate, state, and regional levels.

Sponsored by Kevin Smith and Brian Brandt, LSM University of Iowa, c/o Lutheran Campus Center 20 E. Market St., Iowa City, IA 52240