U.S. Officials Hold Secret Talks With South Africans : Key Reagan Aide Flies to Vienna

High-ranking U.S. and South African officials, including President Reagan’s National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane and South African Foreign Minister Roelof (Pik) Botha, met secretly in Vienna today to discuss the accelerating unrest in South Africa.

It was believed to be the first meeting between senior U.S. and South African officials on the racial crisis in South Africa.

Neither side would comment on the results of the talks. Botha said later that the meeting will continue Friday, but a U.S. official in Vienna said no further talks have been arranged.

Asked what was the main object of the talks, Botha said: “I am not in a position to comment on that. You were not supposed to know I was here.”

The U.S. official, who did not attend the talks, said there was no formal conclusion of the meeting.

“There was an exchange of views on that subject (the situation in South Africa), and now people are returning to their capitals to report to their principals,” he said.

In London, a British Foreign Office spokesman said a senior official from the ministry also met Botha in Vienna today.

Botha said he will be traveling to meet other officials of European governments after leaving Austria, probably on Friday.

In Washington, the meeting was first revealed by State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb under questioning from reporters. Kalb said the meeting, which took place in the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, was at the urgent request of the South African government.

Officials said McFarlane was joined at the talks by Herman Nickel, the U.S. ambassador to Pretoria who was recalled last month to show U.S. displeasure with South Africa’s policies, and by Chester Crocker, assistant secretary of state for African affairs. Crocker is the principal author of the U.S. policy of “constructive engagement,” which is designed to keep channels of communication open with the Pretoria government in order to influence its policies.

Kalb said he had no information on the other participants in the meeting or on the length or substance of the talks.

He said the U.S. government agreed to the meeting with Botha “because of the importance of our having direct contacts with the South African government.”

Kalb also reiterated the U.S. call for an end to the state of emergency in South Africa as part of a four-point plan to end racial violence in South Africa.

Kalb and White House spokesman Larry Speakes, in nearly identical statements said: “The meeting was at the request of the South African government. We agreed to the meeting because of the importance of our having direct contact with the South African government at this tense time.

“The meeting afforded us the opportunity to discuss the serious situation inside South Africa and in the region, the situation about which the Administration has strong views,” the statements said.

Kalb said the meeting was confidential. “The results of the meeting will obviously be carefully studied,” he said.

Speakes stressed that there is no change in the U.S. policy of “constructive engagement” and that Reagan remains opposed to any economic sanctions against the South African regime.

When the idea of the meeting was raised by the South African government two weeks ago, the State Department said, there were no plans for such an encounter. Secretary of State George P. Shultz said the same thing July 29.

The meeting took place as rioters and police battled in black townships around Durban in the bloodiest fighting in five months. At least 22 blacks were reported killed and 150 injured in a 24-hour period.