Page 163 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

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ANC, of being recognised by the UN General Assembly as ‘the sole authentic representative’
of the Namibia population).

Some years later COSAWR was to explain:

COSAWR has never claimed to represent the views of every single SA resister … COSAWR made
it clear from its inception that it would work with the liberation movements, the ANC and SWA-
PO, and with the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and other solidarity groups associated with the
AAM. This was because we felt that as white South Africans it was important to place ourselves
in the mainstream of the struggle and identify ourselves with the organisations representing the
majority of the people of SA and Namibia … [O]ur work in exile involves accepting the leadership
of SWAPO and the ANC with regard to the overall struggle. It also means that we work in consul-
tation with the AAM and the broad international struggle against apartheid (COSAWR 1982b: 3).

In other words, COSAWR was determined to align itself with the ANC rather than the
BC movements or the PAC, and to work with existing international solidarity movements
aligned with the ANC rather than building a new solidarity movement – in contrast to the
positions of SAMRAF. A further principle was that it would not attempt to construct its own
‘internal’ (ie South African underground) structures but would rather work though those of
the existing ANC.
COSAWR thus set itself up in effect as a specialist arm of the ANC and the AAM rather
than a movement in its own right. It portrayed itself as a legal, campaigning organisation with
the aim of building a base in exile in support of South African war resisters and against South
African militarism. Its particular tasks were described as:

- To raise the issue of the increasing militarism of the apartheid state and resistance to it
- To campaign internationally for the right to asylum for SA war resisters and to campaign
in support of resisters imprisoned or persecuted in South Africa
- To research into the SA military and resistance
- To produce publications in this field
- To assist SA war resisters with asylum etc
- To involve war resisters in Britain in study classes, public meetings etc and in general
anti-apartheid work (COSAWR 1982b: 1)

To this end, the committee (which retained a small membership) spent much time rai-
sing funds, carrying out campaigning activities, organising exiled war resisters (mainly in
London), meeting with newly-exiled individuals, assessing them and assisting them with
applying for refugee status, and producing publications.
this need not detain us too much, but some points are worth mentioning.
Obtaining refugee status for South African war resisters was not an easy matter. In the
UK, most of the first war resisters had been threatened with deportation, but an AAM delega-
tion managed to secure some concessions from the then Labour Government. The situation
became more complicated with the victory of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives (who were
better disposed to the South African regime) in 1979, and a number of cases resulted in which