For a Free Namibia

THE WORLD community must condemn the South African government for rejecting the United Nations plan for an internationally supervised transition to independence in Namibia, the miner-rich territory South Africa has illegally occupied in defiance of U.N. ruling since 1966. Last week, in an 11th-hour decision, retiring South African Prime Minister John Vorster announced that South Africa would conduct its own independence election in the territory, rather than allow U.N. troops and civilian personnel to supervise the election of a transitional Namibian government.

If allowed to go unchallenged, this latest South African demonstration of contempt for international standards of justice can only result in the election of a Pretoria-controlled puppet regime and the continued political and economic subjugation of Namibia's black majority.

The Southwest Africa Peoples Organization (SWAPO)--the freedom-fighting organization most Western observers believe commands the support of the majority of Namibians--has rightly refused to participate in elections held in the atmosphere of intimidation and repression South African guns would guarantee. A government established with the "help" of the South Africans would undoubtedly emerge with a weak confederation structure and representation along tribal lines. Such a government merely would insure continued political and economic dominance by the whites in the territory, who currently enjoy one of the world's highest standards of living. With these realities in mind, SWAPO has already announced plans to intensify its armed struggle against South Africa and Pretoria's sham Namibian government. Under current circumstances, this armed struggle clearly must continue.

Much has been made of the diplomatic role the Western powers played in moving SWAPO and South Africa toward the July compromise on U.N.-supervised elections. Throughout the summer, the American press touted the now-broken agreement as a victory for Western diplomacy over Communist support of armed struggle as a means of securing justice in Southern Africa. Overlooked amid all the self-congratulation has been the self-interested nature of the Western diplomatic role: the five NATO powers who attempted to act as honest brokers between SWAPO and Pretoria stand to gain the most by securing a peaceful transition to independence. These countries' corporations mine and market the vast stores of precious minerals in Namibia. And for 12 years, these countries, led by the U.S., did the most to undercut U.N. efforts to loosen South Africa's stranglehold over Namibia.

No amount of legal or diplomatic hairsplitting can obscure where international justice now lies. The world community cannot leave this latest South African outrage unchallenged. The Security Council, led by the Western powers, must act swiftly to adopt Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim's proposal for U.N.-supervised elections and condemn South Africa's intransigence. If South Africa still refuses to back down and accept the U.N. plan, the U.N. must declare South Africa an immediate threat to international peace and enact harsh economic sanctions against the apartheid state, including a potentially devastating oil embargo.

If the West takes a bold stand on economic sanctions, the South Africans may yet be routed from the territory by the ballot, rather than the bullet