S. Africa, Barred at Red Cross Talks, Expels Its Officials

Angered by the suspension of the South African government delegation from an International Red Cross conference in Geneva, Pretoria on Saturday expelled all the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and ordered the committee’s offices to be closed.

Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha, denouncing the Geneva vote as violating the International Red Cross movement’s principles of humanity and impartiality, said the representatives would not be permitted to return “until the South African government again can participate at the conferences of the International Red Cross.”

Under pressure from Third World and socialist countries, which threatened to walk out, the Geneva meeting voted Saturday, as a protest against South African apartheid, to suspend the South African government delegation, but not the South African Red Cross Society itself, from participating in the conference.

This was the first time in the history of the International Red Cross movement, which helps victims of war and natural disasters and often acts as a neutral go-between for hostile countries, that a state had been suspended from membership.

Although representatives of the Geneva-based, Swiss-manned International Committee of the Red Cross have been expelled from other countries, an official of the 15-member delegation in South Africa and neighboring Namibia described South Africa’s action as “truly extraordinary in the annals of our committee.”

“It is hard to think of another country that has expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross and shut its offices as South Africa is doing,” he said, asking not to be quoted by name.

But the practical effect of South Africa’s suspension from the international conference in Geneva would have been nil, according to South African officials, as the meeting is held only every four years and executive power rests with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies, which is also based in Geneva.

Nothing in the Geneva vote would have prevented the Red Cross from continuing its famine-relief work or any of its other activities. South Africa in recent years has frequently used the International Committee of the Red Cross to open and maintain contacts with its neighbors.

Pretoria, however, saw the matter as involving serious principles, particularly because the country’s membership in many other bodies is now being challenged.

The United States led the fight against the move, but the motion for South Africa’s suspension was approved, 159 to 25 with eight abstentions; however, more than 100 other delegations, including that of the International Committee of the Red Cross itself, refused to participate, arguing that the debate was politicizing the movement and jeopardizing its neutrality.

The United States and other Western governments then called for an immediate adjournment of the meeting, but were again defeated on a 178-52 vote, with five abstentions.

Jeremy Shearar, leader of the South African government delegation to the Geneva meeting, said his country’s ejection from the conference “calls into question the Red Cross’ ability in the future to play a neutral role in international conflicts. It has now assumed the right to discriminate between its members and hence between the wounded on the field of battle.”

Kenya, in proposing the ouster, said South Africa’s policy of apartheid, or racial segregation, violates Red Cross principles. Kenya’s chief delegate, Denis Daudi Afande, said the South African government delegates were representatives of an “evil and inhuman system.”

American Red Cross President Richard Schubert said apartheid is an “affront to all humanity” but that expelling South Africa would destabilize the organization.