- Western Contact Group
The Western Contact Group (WCG), representing the five Western members of the
UN Security Council , includingCanada ,France ,West Germany , theUnited Kingdom and theUnited States , launched a joint diplomatic effort in 1977 to bring an internationally acceptable transition to independence forNamibia , after a decade of illegal occupation by apartheid South Africa.The WCG's efforts led to the presentation in 1978 of Security Council Resolution 435 for settling the Namibian problem. The "settlement proposal", as it became known, was worked out after lengthy consultations by the Western Contact Group with South Africa, the
front-line states (Angola ,Botswana ,Mozambique ,Tanzania ,Zambia , andZimbabwe ),SWAPO and theUN Commissioner for Namibia ,Martti Ahtisaari . It called for the holding of elections in Namibia under UN supervision and control, the cessation of all hostile acts by all parties, and restrictions on the activities of South African and Namibian military, paramilitary, and police.Although South Africa had agreed to cooperate in achieving the implementation of Resolution 435, it unilaterally held elections in Namibia which were boycotted by SWAPO and a few other political parties. South Africa continued to administer Namibia through its installed multiracial coalitions and an appointed
Administrator-General . Negotiations after 1978 focused on issues such as supervision of elections connected with the implementation of the "settlement proposal".Another decade passed until South Africa signed the
New York Accords agreeing to grant independence to Namibia, but on condition thatCuba n troops were withdrawn from neighbouringAngola and thatSoviet military aid to Angola should cease.Namibia finally achieved its independence on
March 21 ,1990 .ee also
History of Namibia
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.