ABSTRACT
States are adamant that the right to self-determination should not be interpreted in the sense o f entailing secessionist elements which allow groups o f people to secede from the State in which they live. Any suggestion that minorities can create States by virtue o f the right to self-determination is vehemently opposed by most nation-States. Secession, as will be shown below, is an extremist political concept tinged with tribalism. The views of States seems to be that “the slogan o f self-determination was increasingly being used by political elites and clans in order to seize and maintain power”.1 They do not have any desire for an experiment of selfdetermination beyond the colonial context, because the secessionists’ ultimate aim is to assail the sanctity of the State system (White, 1981:160 and 162; see also Nanda, 1981:263 and 270; Buchheit, 1978:105; Nayar, 1975:321-345). Therefore it is not surprising that the inter-State system has intentionally set limits to the application o f self-determination beyond the colonial context (Schoenberg, 1976:63).
