France Bars New S. Africa Investments

France today ordered its ambassador in Johannesburg to return home and suspended all new investment in South Africa to protest a four-day state of emergency that has resulted in 665 arrests.

The actions were the first major diplomatic steps taken against South Africa since President Pieter Botha declared the state of emergency Sunday. Many other nations have denounced the emergency but have taken no direct action.

French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said Ambassador Pierre Boyer was being recalled immediately to protest the “new and serious deterioration” in South Africa sparked by the state of emergency, which followed increasingly violent confrontations in recent weeks between South African police and residents of the country’s black townships.

Others Urged to Join

“(Our country) cannot stand back and allow fundamental human rights to be flouted in such a way,” Fabius said. “We hope many other countries will join us in order that justice and wisdom may at last prevail in this part of the world.”

U.S. Ambassador Herman Nickel was ordered home for consultations in June after a South African raid into neighboring Botswana. He remains in Washington.

Fabius also said his government presented to the U.N. Security Council a resolution “condemning the practices of South Africa and proposing a series of precise measures to the international community.”

Fabius said any proposed new French investments in South Africa “under any conditions is to be immediately suspended,” but he made no mention of current investments.

Racial Violence

Authorities in South Africa said today that 665 people--661 blacks and four whites--have been taken into custody since Botha invoked emergency powers to quell 11 months of racial violence in black townships. The names of 441 people were released Tuesday, and an additional 224 names were announced today.

In addition, police said they raided a meeting of the United Democratic Front, South Africa’s largest and most powerful anti-apartheid organization.

“A large number of dangerous weapons, including knives, pangas (long-bladed cane-cutting knives) and sharpened rods were seized by police” during the raid on the UDF meeting in the Eastern Cape province, the statement said.

On Tuesday, police raided UDF headquarters in Johannesburg. A UDF spokesman said Patrick Laponya, a UDF official, was arrested in the raid.

Police have accused the UDF--an alliance of about 600 black groups with a total membership of 1.5 million--of organizing the racial violence that has left at least 480 blacks and two whites dead since September.

Tuesday’s arrests, Page 8.