Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 17, 1990 TAG: 9003172147
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH LENGTH: Medium
Though limited in scope, the meeting in Cape Town will mark the start of what is expected to be a long and complicated process aimed at ending the government's apartheid policies, which deny the nation's black majority any political rights.
Friday's announcement was the outgrowth of a series of steps taken by de Klerk since early February to try to change South Africa's political situation, beginning with his lifting of a longtime ban on the African National Congress, the most prominent black nationalist group fighting Pretoria, and all other black anti-apartheid groups, and to release Mandela after 27 1/2 years in prison.
The ANC has said the main obstacles to negotiations are the release of all political prisoners and suspension of a state of emergency that was imposed in 1986.
A statement from the president's office said de Klerk and Cabinet ministers would meet Mandela and other ANC leaders to discuss "the obstacles perceived to obstruct the process towards negotiations." No other names of delegation members from either side were given.
During a radio interview in Stockholm, Sweden, where he is visiting ailing ANC president Oliver Tambo, Mandela said the meeting with de Klerk "must produce a result if we are going to continue talking."
After the announcement, de Klerk said at a news conference that he thought the meeting should deal with a number of "practical problems" including the issue of whether ANC exiles will be arrested if they return to South Africa now.
He indicated, however, that the government would take a hard line on the ANC demand for lifting the state of emergency, saying, "It's there because it is necessary in a volatile situation," and would only be lifted when domestic stability made it possible to do so.
Mandela warned the government even before his Feb. 11 release from prison that other anti-apartheid activists still in jail had to be freed before the ANC would start substantive negotiations.
The number of jailed activists, whom the government calls "security prisoners," is estimated between about 350 and 2,000. In addition, police have detained over the past week scores of activists it believes to have been involved in sparking the latest wave of unrest sweeping the country.
Mandela last week convinced more than 300 political prisoners being held on Robben Island off Cape Town to suspend their hunger strike by telling them that their release was about to be arranged in the forthcoming talks with the government.
by CNB