Resolution 610 (1988)
of 16 March 1988

The Security Council,

Recalling its resolutions 503 (1982) of 9 April 1982, 525
(1982) of 7 December 1982, 533 (1983) of 7 June 1983 and
547 (1984) of 13 January 1984 in which, inter alia, it
expressed its grave concern that the Pretoria régime’s
practice of sentencing to death and executing its opponents
has adverse consequences on the search for a peaceful
resolution of the South African situation,

Gravely concerned at the deteriorating situation in South
Africa, the worsening human suffering resulting from the
apartheid system and, inter alia, the South African régime’s
renewed state of emergency, its imposition on 24 February
1988 of severe restrictions on eighteen anti-apartheid and
labour organizations and eighteen individuals committed to
peaceful forms of struggle and the harassment and detention
of church leaders on 29 February, all of which further
undermine the possibilities of a peaceful resolution of the
South African situation,

Having considered the question of the death sentences
passed on 12 December 1985 in South Africa on Mojalefa
Reginald Sefatsa, Reid Malebo Mokoena, Oupa Moses
Diniso, Theresa Ramashamola, Duma Joseph Khumalo and
Francis Don Mokhesi, known as the Sharpeville Six, as
eerie the decision to execute them on Friday, 18 March
1988,

Conscious that the Court proceedings of the Sharpeville
Six show that none of the six young South Africans
convicted of murder was found by the Court to have caused
the actual death of the Councillor and that they were
convicted of murder and sentenced to death only because
the Court found that they had a “common purpose” with the
actual perpetrators,

Deeply concerned at the Pretoria régime’s decision to
execute the Sharpeville Six on Friday, 18 March 1988, in
defiance of world-wide appeals,

Convinced that these executions, if carried out, will
further inflame an already grave situation in South Africa,

1. Calls upon the South African authorities to stay
execution and commute the death sentences imposed on the
Sharpeville Six;

2. Urges all States and organizations to use their
influence and take urgent measures, in conformity with the
Charter of the United Nations, the resolutions of the
Security Council and relevant internationa] instruments, to
save the lives of the Sharpeville Six.

Adopted unanimously at the
2799th meeting.
