Casting the First Stone

In an atrocity that some observers described as a minor act of genocide, the ruling Tutsi tribe in the African republic of Burundi in 1972 put down a rebellion by massacring some 75,000 members of the country's Hutu majority. That same year, Uganda's burly dictator Idi Amin ("Big Daddy") Dada forcibly expelled 26,000 of his country's Asian residents and expropriated their possessions. Last week Burundi and Uganda--along with other notably humane nations like the Soviet Union--were among the 91 members of the United Nations that voted to suspend South Africa from the General Assembly.

Under suspension rules, South Africa retains U.N. membership, but its delegation will not be permitted to take seats, speak, make proposals or vote. Although the ruling extends only through the current session, which ends Dec. 17, South Africa's opponents have threatened to repeat the move in future sessions unless Prime Minister John Vorster's government agrees to relinquish its control over Namibia (South West Africa), end its military support of Rhodesia's white supremacist government, and abandon its own apartheid policies. Vorster has indicated his willingness to accommodate world opinion on all three issues. "If South Africa is given the chance," he promised recently, "they [local and foreign critics] will be surprised at where the country will stand in six to twelve months." The black nations, however, are demanding more specific and immediate concessions.

The Pretoria government's first reaction was to recall U.N. Ambassador Roelofse F. ("Pik") Botha home for "urgent consultation." Foreign Minister Hilgard Muller announced that South Africa--a charter member of the U.N. and one of the few African nations that pays its dues--will freeze its annual $1.1 million contribution to the U.N. budget. The possibility of withdrawing from the U.N. was being debated in Pretoria last week, but the consensus seemed to be that such a move would be self-defeating. As one Johannesburg newspaper put it, as long as South Africa's enemies can shout at it in the U.N., they are less likely to shoot at it.

Inevitable Fate. Several Western U.N. delegates, including U.S. Ambassador Scali, disputed the legality of the ruling and were clearly worried about the precedent being set--a worry reinforced by the remarks of P.L.O. Leader Yasser Arafat to the General Assembly. Arafat prophesied South Africa-style ostracism for Israel. "Such is the inevitable fate of every racist country that adopts the law of the jungle, usurps the homeland of others. . ."

The coincidence of Arafat's appearance with the Assembly ouster of South Africa seemed to indicate a trade-off of support between African and Arab delegations. That alliance prompted little optimism last week among those who still hope that the U.N. can serve as a forum for meaningful dialogue between black and white Africans, between Arab and Israeli.

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