UN General Assembly
1985

Some may wonder why Vanuatu, a small country in the South Pacific, is so passionate on the subject of South Africa. Those who wonder do not know much about our own history. Although we are far removed geographically from the centers of world conflict, we are not an island unto ourselves. In the 19th century, our country was depopulated by slave traders who took many of our own people to work for them in other countries. Our country was also depopulated by the purposeful introduction of diseases from which we had no immunity. In a relatively short period of time our population was reduced from over 1 million people to considerably fewer than 100,000. He knew genocide before the world knew the word.